


The Consequence of Rejection

by StrikinglyStrange



Category: Doctor Stephen Strange - Fandom, Doctor Strange - Fandom, Iron Man - Fandom, IronStrange - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Tony Stark - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-25
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-02 04:29:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 23,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15788985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrikinglyStrange/pseuds/StrikinglyStrange
Summary: Stephen receives an invitation into the Avengers, sent by Tony. To Tony, the letter wasn't an invitation, but a statement. Stephen rejects the letter immediately, and Tony finds himself furious. He doesn't understand why somebody would reject a spot on the world's best superhero team. He can't shake the feeling of irritation so he decides to confront the cocky sorcerer.To Tony's surprise, he finds his perfect match in Doctor Stephen Vincent Strange, and he goes to his good friend Pepper for advice.





	1. Prologue

Dear Mr. Stark,

I formally decline your invitation into the Avengers. While I did not have my powers during the events of what is being referred to as “Civil War,” I did follow the news. What I have seen is not unity, but chaos. 

I assume you were alerted to my presence by your “friend” Thor whom I had the pleasure of meeting a short time ago. I simply helped him find his father so that he could take his adopted brother Loki from this earth.

Kamar-Taj vowed to never again let Loki threaten this planet. We are the first line of defense against interstellar attacks.

I understand that you, too, fought against Loki, however, this is not enough. I was trusted to watch over one of the Sanctums and that is where I shall remain.

Sincerely,

Doctor Stephen Vincent Strange.


	2. Rebuttal

Dear Dr. Strange,

I must have read your letter wrong because it seemed to appear that you said no. But, I know that this isn’t the case. Nobody in their right mind would pass up a chance to be a part of this exclusive team.

You’ll have access to cutting-edge technology, not to mention Stark Industries. Our new compound is located outside of the city where we can operate without having to worry about putting normal people in danger.

We enjoy lavish parties and facilities.

Which, leads me to believe that you are not of sound mind. So, I’m sending my good friend Bruce to give you a check-up, on me.

He’s a Doctor too. Look him up. I think you’ll be impressed by his 7 PHDs. 

Yours truly,

Tony Stark.


	3. A Declaration of War

Dear Stark,

As I have stated before, I formally decline. 

You should know that these letters come as a bother to me and the order.

As you know… I was in a car accident some time ago that took away my proper hand function. As such, writing is extremely difficult for me and causes much pain. 

My good friend Wong is tasked with the chore of writing you back.

I’m also not sure why we are sending letters in this day and age, yet you brag to me of advanced technologies.

Surely Stark Industries has heard of the elusive cellular phone.

Why don’t you try buying one?

Or have you gone bankrupt trying to buy all of your Avenger buddies?

-Strange.


	4. Drawing Blood

Dear Harry Potter,

Clearly, all of the money in the world couldn’t buy you a proper set of manners. It seems to me like you’ve got a case of jealousy. It must be truly boring dusting ancient relics all day.

Thor told me about your cheap parlor trick: turning water into wine like you’re some kind of modern day Jesus. 

Somebody’s full of himself.

I don’t see why you’re so adamantly against joining us when you’ve only met one of us. And literally bribed him to leave New York City. A place where he is welcome. A place that he helped saved all those years ago during the attack on New York.

Come to a party, introduce yourself, mingle and get to know my friends.

Try getting out in the light for once. Try not to bring your broom or wizard’s hat, I’m not in the habit of throwing many costume parties, and I don’t believe you’d be much fun at one.

Stark - Billionaire, Playboy, Philanthropist.


	5. A Fatal Blow

Dear Tiny Stork,

My, my. Isn’t this the case of the pot calling the kettle black? Or did that idiom confuse you? Do you even know what an idiom is?

I’ll have you know that I don’t fly with a broom like some antiquated movie. My cloak is an ancient relic that allows me to float. And more gracefully than you, from the looks of the news.

I’m not sure that I’m interested in meeting any of the people that you deem friends.

I know your origin story. How you became “Iron Man,” selling weapons to terrorists. Trying to deal with everyone and come out untouched. The rich prodigy who thought he was above everyone else, bleeding out to death in a foreign country for a quick dollar. 

What you call a cheap parlor trick, I call hosting a guest. That might be a hard concept for you to understand, though, since you’ve had servants and assistants all of your life.

I may have been a form of rich, too, but I was never as pathetic as you.

Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, and Master of the Mystic Artes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This next chapter will be the first outside of a letter format. Tony's anger builds until he decides to go meet Stephen in person, without Stephen knowing.


	6. A Family Meeting

Tony: 

“Pepper!” Tony yells as he stomps into his laboratory at the compound. 

Pepper jumps a little bit before she turns to face him. “Jesus Chr- Tony, what’s wrong?”

Tony flings himself onto the couch against the wall. “Strange refused my invitation to the Avengers,”

“I know. Bruce told me that you tried to convince him to run a psych evaluation on Dr. Strange. Really, Tony. Bruce isn’t that kind of doctor,” Pepper rolls her eyes, playfully.

Tony rolls over, face first into the couch cushion. “And then I invited him to the party next week and he rejected that too!” 

Pepper kneels down next to Tony and pats the back of his head, “There, there. Not everyone is impressed by flashy crowds and expensive champagne.”

Tony groans and rolls over, looking up at Pepper. “He insulted my intelligence, he called me spoiled. He accused me of having a silver spoon in my mouth!” Tony jumps up off of the couch, causing Pepper to stumble back a bit. 

Pepper sighs and straightens her skirt out, “Oh, Tony. Please, can’t we just handle this like adults?” 

“I tried to,” Tony narrows his eyes. “What’s on my schedule for today?”

Pepper shakes her head as she pulls out her phone and scrolls through the calendar. “I’m afraid to say it… but, today’s your off day.” 

Tony practically runs out of the door and up the stairs, bumping into Bruce on the way through the lounge and into his room.

“..Pepper? What’s gotten into Tony?” Bruce asks, nervously.

Pepper facepalms. “He’s going to go take the fight to Dr. Strange.”

“Should we go after him?” Bruce asks as he looks up the staircase.

“Honestly, I don’t think it would make any difference. He’s all bent out of shape over this.”

_____________________  
Stephen:

Peter Parker knocks on the door of the New York Sanctum Sanctorum, shuffling a little. “Hello?,” He asks quietly.

After a few moments of silence the door swings open, but nobody’s there. Peter sticks his head in and looks around. “Whoa.. he really DOES have magic!” Peter cheers as he runs in.

“Who. Are. You.” A deep voice rings out from all around Peter.

“Peter. Peter Parker. I’m a friend of Mr. Stark’s. I used to do his internship! I’ve been to the Avengers Compound.”

“You? A friend of Stark’s? A teenage boy?”

Peter clears his throat and attempts to make his voice deeper. “I’m not that young! I’ve driven a car and fought off bad-” Peter catches himself and stops immediately, throwing his hands over his mouth.

Stephen steps out through a portal that appears in front of Peter. “Did you say that you’re an Avenger? So that makes you the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.” Stephen cocks his head.

Peter kicks the floor, looking downwards. “Y-yeah, But I’m supposed to be keeping it a secret. Mr. Stark makes me stay in school, and I have to keep up my extracurriculars as well. But just a few months ago he asked me to become an Avenger! It was a whole big thing!”

“And, what? He sent you now to change my mind?”

“I just wanted to tell you, that I understand. The first time he asked me I said no too. I wanted it so bad for so long but when it was right in front of me... I walked away from it!” Peter crosses his arms and looks away from Stephen.

“Why would a kid who basically worships Stark turn him down?”

“I wanted to impress him! I thought it was a test! He told me… if I’m nothing without the suit then I’m nothing at all. I wanted him to know that he could trust me. Like, really trust me. I mean, like when he had me help him fight Mr. Rogers and his friends. But this time, against the real enemies.” Peter motions with his arms, and he talks so fast that Stephen struggles to keep up.

“But Mr. Stark isn’t like the media portrays him! He’s really caring! He’s always offering to help me and my aunt out! He said he would pay for my college! Wherever I want to go! He’s like… he’s like my father…” Peter says softly while blushing.  
_____________________

Tony parks his car right out front of the Sanctum Sanctorum. He can’t wait to see the look at Strange’s face when he tries to figure out how Tony found his headquarters without so much as a hint.

He jogs up the steps, whistling a happy tune, and knocks three times on the giant front doors.

This time when they open it’s from Stephen’s magic. Tony walks right in, without waiting for a greeting, and stops dead in his tracks when he sees Peter standing a little ways behind Strange. Tony’s facial expression sinks. “Peter. Why are you here?”

“Oh hi, Mr. Stark!” Peter smiles widely and he runs over and hugs Tony. Tony hugs back while eyeing Strange suspiciously. Stephen conjures himself some tea and sips it from the recliner he seats himself in. 

“Peter, how did you even hear about this wannabe Harry Potter?”

“Dr. Banner and Thor were talking about him one day in the kitchen! Thor said he was really nice and he didn’t understand why you and him weren’t getting along. Dr. Banner kept saying that Dr. Strange was probably just nervous about joining a government blacklisted organization.” Peter shuffles.

“And what did he say?” Tony looks from Peter to Strange.

“He didn’t get the chance to answer. You knocked right as I got done explaining everything!”

“What did you explain to him?” Tony narrows his eyes at Peter.

“That you’re actually a really good person and that you just want more friends and-”

“You told him that I’m lonely?!” Tony chokes. 

Stephen smiles widely. “No, he didn’t He told me that he declined your offer to be an Avenger, as well.”

“Yeah, I’m still not an Avenger either. Not unless something crazy happens!” Peter spins around to Stephen,

“It seems you’re striking out all around,” Stephen shrugs and takes a giant sip of his tea.


	7. Pain's an Old Friend

“Peter’s a special case. He’s underage. His aunt doesn’t even know he’s-” Tony cuts himself off, clearly uncomfortable. 

At that, Stephen softens. He sets the tea down and gets up gracefully, the cloak falling around him. “You signed him on without parental permission? You-”

“Stop,” Tony holds up his hand. “Peter’s hard headed. He almost got himself killed trying to fight the Vulture. He wouldn’t… he wouldn’t stop. I pulled him out of the river, freezing cold and gasping for air.” Tony looks at Peter who’s chewing on his lip. “So, if he’s not going to stop then he’s my responsibility and I’m not going to let anything happen to him. That’s the end of the story. Let’s move on.”

Stephen can tell he better not prod Tony for any more information regarding his situation with Peter. 

“I-I’m gonna go, Mr. Stark. I should probably get home before dinner. May doesn’t like to eat alone!” Peter hugs Tony again and waves to Stephen before running outside of the house.

Tony and Stephen stand on opposite sides of the room, avoiding eye contact.

“This party?”

“It’s this weekend. Friday night. At the compound.”

“The kid?”

“Definitely not. He’ll be at home doing his homework if he knows what’s good for him.”

“And Dr. Banner won’t try to diagnose me with anything?”

Tony frowns. “He was never going to in the first place. He was upset when I asked him. He was all, ‘Tony you can’t just assume people are insane because they don’t want to be your friend,’ blah, blah.” Tony chuckled slightly. 

Stephen finds himself fighting off a smile. His cloak nudges him forward, closer to Tony. “I suppose I could stop by If Wong is able to watch the Sanctum for me. That’s a big if, though. He’s a pretty busy man, himself.”

Tony turns to face Stephen. “It’s a deal. But…” He eyes Stephen over, “Wear something nice. Something Gucci… something other than this weird culty, adult Harry Potter get up you’re sporting.” 

“Says the man in jeans and a t-shirt,” Stephen scoffs.

“They’re both designer, I’ll have you know. Very expensive and very prestigious.” 

Stephen rolls his eyes at Tony. “Yeah, yeah. Sure.” With a flick of his hand, he opens the front doors. “Now, if you don’t mind…”

Tony looks back at the door, “Tch.”

\--------------

Tony:

As soon as Tony strolls into the lounge of the compound he’s swarmed by Bruce, Thor, and Pepper who are all sporting very concerned looks.

“Tony, I can’t believe you went over there!” Pepper yells.

“Did you really have the acrobatic spider mediate for you?” Thor asks.

“Please tell me you didn’t use me to threaten Dr. Strange again!” Bruce begs.

“I’ll have you all know that I was able to convince him to come to the party on Friday!” Tony brags as he flops down onto the couch and flips on the tv.

Pepper cocks her head and bites her lip. “Mhm hmm, mhm hmm. And would this have something to do with the text Peter sent me?” She pulls her phone out of her pocket and unlocks it. “Ms. Potts! I went to visit Dr. Strange today and Mr. Stark showed up! He looked really mad and they argued about me and some Avengers stuff for a bit but I think they’re gonna be great friends.”

Tony turns the television up a little louder. “Potato, potato. Yeah, the kid did most of the heavy work. So what? It’s not like I called him and asked. It’s just Peter. He’s always trying to carry my burdens.”

“Tony, you shouldn’t just let him-” Pepper prepares to lecture Tony.  
“Guys, we’re falling apart here. We lost Steve, Nat, Rhodey… Barnes. We’re half a team here.”

“Tony…” Bruce says softly, as he sits down next to him on the couch.

“You tried to leave too, Banner. Not even a word. And with Clint retired, what am I supposed to do?” He looked around the room. “I don’t even have Sam anymore. I’ve given out pieces of my heart and my technology and what do I have to show for it? An empty compound. Even Wanda and Vision ran off. Vision’s my son. I gave him his life. He’s some of the best pieces of me and he couldn’t even tolerate being around me. Hell, no one can get in touch with T’Challa. Wakanda is so far under the radar I wouldn’t even believe it existed if he hadn’t fought against Steve. Who are the Avengers? Iron Man and Spider-Man.”

“Tony, you still have me-”

Tony placed a hand on Bruce’s shoulder. “You left and came back months later with Thor. And you didn’t come back whole. Don’t try to tell me any different. How can I keep these cracks from splintering if I don’t have any more glue?”

Thor plopped down on the other side of Tony. The shift in weight caused Tony and Bruce to pop upwards, off of the couch and then immediately back down. 

Pepper walked over and knelt down in front of Tony. She takes both of his hands in hers and she strokes them. “So, this is why you’ve been killing yourself trying to find new recruits?”

Tony closes his eyes.

“You know if you asked if you really needed them they would all come back.”

“I don’t want to have to ask.”  
\--------------

Stephen:

“Watch the sanctum on Friday night… because you have… a date?” Wong paces back and forth of Stephen, outside in the training grounds of Kamar-Taj. “But… it’s not with the doctor who saved your life and tried to save the Ancient One?” He ponders it over in his head. “It’s with Tony Stark, of Stark Industries. The man who stands for everything that you hate.”

“Everything is a bit of a gross overstatement…”

Wong stops in his tracks. “Did you forget that I had to write the letters for you? I know how you feel. You think he’s egotistical, cocky beyond measure, full of himself, a hot mess, and NOT the good kind.”

“I’ve recently gained some new perspective,” he says as he eyes Peter who’s hanging upside down from one of the trees, Spider-suit on, and reading one of his class textbooks. 

“His not son, who came to get you to change your mind. And somehow this kid got through to you. In a matter of minutes. What did he say?”

“It’s not what he said,” Stephen folds his arms against his chest. “It’s the fact that he used his… senses to track us down to plead Tony’s case. To try to get through to me about the kind of person Tony really is. If he’s really this focused on getting me to join his… team… then something must be going on.”

“You called him Tony,” Wong looked Stephen dead in his eyes.

“No, I didn’t,” Stephen can feel himself start to blush. 

“You said ‘the kind of person Tony really is’, without hesitation.”

“I-” Stephen bites his lip. “I’m going to my old room to meditate.” Stephen quickly walks away. 

Peter lowers his textbook and smiles at Wong. “I think you teased him just enough to work!” Peter whispers to him. Wong nods back at him before making his way to the library.

“If you need any tutoring kid, let me know!” Wong yells back to him before letting the door shut behind him.

Stephen opens his old door and watches dust sprinkle from the ceiling and lightly cover his cloak. He gently takes the cloak off and lays it down on the wooden chair at the sparse desk. He rolls up his sleeves and takes a deep breath. He sits down on the floor in between the door and the bed. After a few moments, he’s floating a few inches from the ground. His fingertips glow a light green, and the color spreads outwards and encompasses his body.

“Did I say Tony?”

His astral projection breaks free from his physical body and he floats through Kamar-Taj, past an unsuspecting Peter, and through the library to the portal in the back that leads to the New York Sanctum. There, he floats along to the front door and closes his eyes. He visualizes Stark standing by the front door, red in the face during the conversation about Peter. 

“I can feel his pain.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now I want to make a separate short series about Wong tutoring Peter! It just sounds so cute! c:


	8. Eating Breakfast Cereal in a Snowstorm

*The Next Morning*

Tony sits at the bar in the kitchen of the compound, mindlessly stirring his spoon around in a bowl of Raisin Bran. 

Thor plops down on the barstool next to him and nudges his shoulder. “Tony, you know I would pledge the entire Asgardian army in all its might to you if I could. But, with my father… dead the hearts of the people are heavy. My sister, Hela, she pushed the people to their limits. They have Loki with them now, but I believe it to be a long time before they’re back to a place of true might.”

Tony sighs. “You should be there, with your people.”

Thor smiles, falsely. “I can’t face Loki right now. I’m not as mighty as you tiny people like to believe. To you, I’m the God of Thunder but to Loki, I’m just his annoying brother who doesn’t deserve the throne and who isn’t worthy of Mjolnir.”

“I wonder what Loki would have to say about Vision…” Tony trails off, his cereal long soggy. Thor gets up and walks over to the fridge, opens it up and begins rummaging through it. “We need a professional cook!” 

Bruce shuffles into the kitchen, hair messy, slippers on. “What’s all of the noise?” He doesn’t have time to duck before Thor hits him in the head with a tub of butter. “Oh, come on!” Bruce rubs the place on his head that’s already turning red.

“I’m sorry, my friend. I didn’t see you there,” Thor leaves the fridge open and walks over to Bruce to pat him on the back. 

“Let me handle the breakfast,” Bruce says as he picks up the butter from the floor and puts it places it back in the fridge. “What’s your stomach asking for today?”

Thor plops back down next to Tony. “Something mighty!”

“So, an omelette then,” Bruce states as he pulls out eggs, milk, cheese and a slice of ham. He starts chopping the ham and Tony grips the edges of the bar.

Thor and Bruce get lost in a conversation about food while Tony tries to tone out the chopping. It stirs some memories inside him, that stir up the PTSD he tries so well to hide. Without the other half of his team and his co-leader Cap, he doesn’t feel as strong as he should. He feels hollow in all the wrong places, and then the pangs of guilt make his heart tighten. He knows that Bruce and Thor should be enough. But the dark voice that lashes out from the recesses of his heart threaten him with feelings of isolation and loneliness.

He thinks about moving the party up by a day, but who in their right mind would party on a Thursday night? For Tony Stark? Plenty of people. But he doesn’t want to raise suspicions in Bruce. He’s too smart for his own good and he’s been monitoring Tony’s mental state despite Tony trying to convince him to do otherwise.

By the time Tony snaps back into reality, Bruce is piling a gigantic omelette onto Thor’s plate. It barely touches the surface before Thor digs into it.

“Tony?” Bruce asks gently as he turns towards him.

“It’s just too early, Bruce. I’m gonna get a shower.” He pushes himself up from the bar and makes his way out of the kitchen and towards his room.  
____________________

Stephen didn’t sleep well. He had nightmares of his car accident, mixed with made-up scenes of him and Tony Stark arguing. Every scenario would start normal enough; Stephen would meet Tony at a party, at the compound, at the store (of all places), and they would argue playfully about who was more handsome, who had a more promising career, who had the better party stories. But then Stephen would try to speak to Tony about deeper matters, try to reach out to him out his pain and Tony would immediately shut down. He’d accuse Stephen of prying into matters that didn’t concern him and he would storm off. And suddenly Stephen would be lost in the middle of a snowstorm, feeling cold and broken and wishing he could fix Tony Stark.

“I’ll do it. No matter what it takes. I’ll fix him.” Stephen says quietly to himself as he gets up out of bed and wanders over into his tiny bathroom. 

He throws on some shaving cream and shaves his jungle of a face. He wipes his chin off with a towel and lays it gently on the edge of the sink. He sighs and grasps the sink with both hands. He looks downwards and closes his eyes. He’s back in the snowstorm and there’s no sign of Tony anywhere.

“Mr. Strange?” Stephen’s eyes fly open and he realizes that someone’s been knocking on his door for the past few seconds. “Come in,” Stephen says as he pulls a shirt on.

Peter opens the door. “Hey, Mr. Strange! How are you doing today?”

Stephen sighs. ‘It’s Doctor Strange, kid.”

Peter scrunches his face. ‘If it’s Doctor Strange then I want to be Peter.. not kid.”

Stephen nods. “It’s a fair deal.” Stephen lingers before turning around and making his bed. “What can I help you with… Peter?”

Peter rocks back and forth where he’s standing, his hands shoved into his jean pockets. “I just wanted to make sure you’re still going to the party tomorrow.”

Stephen cocks his head, for a moment, pausing the pillow fluffing he was doing. “Of course I am. I gave my word and I don’t go back on it. Tony might be infuriating, but he went through a lot of trouble to convince me to go.”

Peter smiles widely. “So, then we should go shopping!”

“Shopping?” Stephen turns to face Peter, a frown on his face.

“Yeah, so that you can have something nice for the party! Wong says you only own training clothes and your superhero outfit.”

“Superhero outfit,” Stephen facepalms. 

“C’mon Doctor Strange!” Peter tugs on his sleeve. “It won’t hurt anything to at least go look. We can go to the mall!”

“One; where does your Aunt think you are? Two; I don’t have a government given job Peter, I don’t get paid to be the Sorcerer Supreme. I’ve got no money. I don’t even own a wallet anymore.”

“May thinks that I’m with Mr. Stark, but it’s okay but I know she would like you too! And, you don’t have to worry about money. Wong gave me some.”

“Where did Wong-” Stephen mumbles, his head turned away from Peter.

{Flashback - 30 Minutes Ago}

Peter is sitting in his bedroom, reading an article on his computer about an upcoming event he has to attend with the debate team when his phone rings. He pulls it out of his pocket and answers. “Hey, Mr. Wong! What’s up?”

“Strange needs clothes, I think you should take him.”

“Why me?” Peter asks, a little confused.

“He would tell me no immediately and then avoid me for the rest of the day. But he knows how much Stark means to you, there’s no way he’ll be able to tell you no.”

“Okay, I’ll be over pretty soon then.”

“Wait.. you don’t have any homework do you?”

“No, I did it all last night! I wanted to be able to just hang out today. I was probably going to go see Mr. Stark at the compound later.”

{Present}

“Fine, we’ll go. I’m not dedicating more than two hours to this, however,” Stephen says sternly to Peter.

Peter nods. “Cool,” he turns to exit Stephen’s bedroom. “Oh, uhhhh, I just swung over here. I guess we could take the bus but-” Peter turns on the puppy dog eyes. “It would also be really cool to be able to experience teleportation.”

Stephen sighs as he opens the top drawer of his dresser and pulls out his sling ring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this shopping trip with Peter and Stephen is going to be really fun to write!


	9. Lunchtime Daydreams

Tony gets out of the shower, wraps a towel around his waist and throws himself onto his bed. He lets out one giant yawn and doesn’t hear Pepper enter the room.

“Tony, Bruce told me you were acting weird this morning,” she says carefully as she hovers in the doorway to his bedroom.

“It’s going to be one of those days, Pep,” Tony responds as he pulls the covers up over his body. Little beads of water drip from the ends of his hair onto the pillows beneath him.

“Should I cancel all of your meetings? It’s nothing too important. Or, I could attend them for you,” Pepper responds as she sits down on the edge of his bed, and pats his leg through the cover.

Tony sits up and smiles widely at her. “No, you know me. I’m used to this. I just gotta keep pushing or I’ll lay in bed all day. If I can make it to tomorrow, I’ll see Ste-” Tony’s eyes widen as he backtracks, “I’ll see everyone and have a good time and it’ll be a good reward for a hard day’s work.”

Pepper smirks at him as she sits back up. She scrolls through the calendar app on her phone. “Then your first meeting is in half an hour. Get dressed, Tony!” She exits the room and Tony gets up. 

His phone pings as he’s pulling out a suit from his wardrobe. He hops over to his bedside table, one leg in the bottoms, the other still free. He taps the screen and it lights up with a message from Peter.

Peter Parker: Hey, Mr. Stark! I’m going shopping with Dr. Strange! We’re going to go to the mall! I think it’s going to be a lot of fun! I’m gonna help him find something cool for your party! (8:00 am)

Tony chuckles. “I wish I could be there to see that..” He says to himself as he buttons up his white shirt, and throws on his matching jacket. “Now where are my shades?” He grabs an extremely expensive pair from the top of his dresser next to the door and makes his way downstairs to the compound garage.  
___________________

Peter runs up to one of the mall directory’s, as Stephen trails behind him. He carefully places his sling ring into the right pocket in his jeans. Peter scans the list of stores and points to the Gucci store.

“I think this is good! I know it’s expensive, at least!” Peter jogs off, and Stephen shakes his head. 

When they enter the store Peter spins around and knocks into Stephen. “Oh, sorry!” He rubs the back of his head as Stephen regains his balance. “I was just going to ask what your favorite color is!”  
“My favorite color?” Stephen cocks his head.

“Yeah, I mean you wear that giant red cape, like Superman or something. But you also wear those blue clothes. And, plus, the cape is purplish on the inside.”

A salesman walks up behind Peter. “Sorry, I couldn’t help overhearing your conversation. A specific color makes it easier to find a starting point if you’re looking at premade suits.”

“No, I know, I used to buy suits for functions and galas when I was still a practicing doctor,” Stephen says softly. 

Peter looks up at him. “It’s okay Dr. Strange! You’re the coolest doctor I know!”

Stephen laughs once. “Thanks, k- Thanks, Peter.”

“So, did you have something in mind?” The salesman asks as he motions to the numerous options available in the store.

“Something red. Red feels like home.”

The salesman leads them to a waiting area. “Please, Peter if you’ll have a seat. Mr. Strange, if you’ll step up on the pedestal for me. “I’m just going to measure you now,” he takes out a measuring tape from a container.

Stephen gets lost in his own head while going through the motions of the measurements. He wonders what Tony is doing. Then he wonders why he wonders what Tony is doing. What would Tony think if he knew that he was out with his basically adopted son?

“Dr. Strange!” Peter calls to him. He realizes that the salesman has disappeared.

“Oh, how long has he been gone?”

“For a few minutes. I was waiting to see how long you were gonna stay spaced out. Are you okay?” Peter looks past Stephen to the salesman who’s coming back with four suits hung on a rolling rack.

Stephen turns around to see what has Peter’s attention. “Yes, perhaps I just need some food.”

When the salesman stops the rack next to Stephen his eye is immediately caught by a lovely red suit with white cuffs, and a white shirt that sports red and black buttons. “That’s the one,” he says as he hands it to the salesman.

The salesman nods and takes it up to the counter. “It’s ready whenever you are, sir.”

“Peter, are you sure that Wong gave you enough money?”

“Shh. I’ve got this handled!”  
_____________________

Tony catches a break between meetings and decides to grab lunch at a burger place, with Pepper.

They sit down at a booth towards the back and he tries his best to blend in. 

“Where are you, Tony?” Pepper asks, cautiously. 

“In a storm.” He sighs. “Here. In meetings. Running.” He stretches his arms up above his head. “Everywhere but where I want to be.”

“And where’s that?” Pepper asks, curiously, as the waitress approaches.

“I’m not telling,” Tony grins as the waitress hands them their menus.

“How are you two lovebirds doing today?” She smiles widely.

“No, uh-, we’re not. This is my boss,” Pepper politely corrects her. 

“Oh,” the waitress turns red-faced.

“That’s not fair. We’re friends too, Pep.” Tony shakes his head. “And you’re fine dear, it’s an honest mistake. We would make a beautiful couple,” he smiles widely at her.

She sighs in relief. “What can I get you two to drink?”

“We’ll both take waters,” Pepper answers, cutting Tony’s caffeine order off.

The waitress goes about her day, and Tony groans. “Let me have a Dr. Pepper, Pepper. This is a dictatorship!” He whines.  
“You don’t need it, Tony. You’ll get plenty of bad liquids tomorrow,” Pepper smirks as she opens up her menu.

“Do you think Strange is actually going to show?”

“I honestly hope he does. I can’t imagine what kind of scene you’ll make if he doesn’t. ..I can’t imagine what kind of scene you’ll make if he does. At least it won’t be as public if he comes to the compound. You can’t go knocking down his door again. I’ll send Bruce to stop you.”

“Aw, so I couldn’t get Bruce involved but you can?!”

“My intentions are pure. Yours weren’t.”

“I just… I don’t know.” Tony shifts in his seat. “I’m not sure why I’m so stuck on him. I think it’s because-” Tony is cut off as the waitress walks up.

“What can I get you two to eat today?” She says as she plops the drinks down.

“I’ll take a turkey burger, with avocado please,” Pepper says, as she hands the waitress her menu.

“I’ll take a double bacon burger, double the seasoned fries too,” Tony passes Pepper the menu and she hands it to the waitress as she glares at him.

The waitress reads the weird vibe and scurries off.

“First of all, you know you need to watch your calories, Tony.”

Tony sticks his tongue out at her.

“And, what were you saying? About Dr. Strange?”

“Eh, it doesn’t matter. It wasn’t for sure. We’ll find out tomorrow.”

Pepper sighs deeply. “I guess I’ll make sure to show up nice and early. And I’ll be ready for babysitting duty.”

“Aw, remember the time I threw that AMAZING New Years party and you and Rhodey took turns babysitting me?”

“You mean the time you tried to sleep with Natasha?”

“Hey, she’s gorgeous! But that’s in the past! We’re professional teammates now.”

“Is there anything ‘professional’ about the Avengers?”

“Ouch,” Tony swats Pepper with a rolled up napkin and they both laugh, loudly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, I love Pepper and Tony's friendship so much.


	10. Caesar salad with a side of sass

Stephen:

“I’m hungry!” Peter’s stomach growled.

“Before we go anywhere I have to get this suit back to the Sanctum to hang it up,” Stephen responded. “I won’t have time to iron if it gets wrinkled. I’ve been neglecting enough of my duties since you started coming around.”

Peter frowned. “I didn’t mean to mess up your routine, Dr. Strange. I just wanted to help you have some fun.”

“Some fun?” Stephen raises an eyebrow.

“Mr. Wong told me that you don’t get out of the Sanctum, or Kamar-Taj, basically ever. And it’s got to get lonely or boring or something just being cooped up in all of these old buildings!”

Stephen opened a portal to the Sanctum. “I’m used to it. After my accident, I drove most people away. My mood swings were vicious, and I was angry at everyone around me for being able to go on in their everyday lives,” he said as he steps through the portal.

Peter follows close behind him. “Well, the Avengers are different. I mean, they’re all best friends with Mr. Banner and look at him. He’s the definition of a mood swing. I mean, could you imagine every time you get angry you turn into a giant green monster?”

Stephen walks through the Sanctum to the back rooms where his bedroom is. He gently hangs the suit up from a tiny closet inside the room. He smooths the bag out once and then steps back in admiration.

“You know, when I would wear suits like this in my past life it was to bring others down. I wanted everyone to know I was the best neurosurgeon in the field. I wasn't in it to make friends. I was in it to make connections, and when those connections burnt out, so did those pretend friendships. I think Christine was my only real friend…”

“Who’s Christine?” Peter pokes his head into Stephen’s room, not sure if it’s okay to come in.

“She’s my ex-girlfriend. She’s another doctor. A brilliant woman. Even though I lashed out against her time and again she still took care of me. She’d shop for my groceries, cook me food when she had the time. She even saved my life when I appeared to her with my magic…”

“Well, where is she now?” Peter cocks his head.

“I left her behind. She forgave me, and she wanted to move forward. And I so badly wanted to move forward with her. But something in me was telling me that I couldn’t go backward. She is a part of a life that makes my heart ache when I think about it. She-”

Peter’s stomach growls even louder than before.

Stephen sighs. “Let’s go get something to eat, Peter.”

“Sure! I know this GREAT burger place just a few blocks from here!”

__________________________________________

Tony:

Tony leaves a generous tip on the table. It’s so much extra money that the waitress chases them to the door and asks if he’s made a mistake.

“No, it’s all for you,” he flashes a giant smile at her and she turns red all over.

“T-thank you, very much! I’m sorry that I accidentally called you two a couple earlier! Please, come back! We’d love to serve you again!”

“Of course, what’s your schedule?” Tony inquires.

“M-my schedule?” She blushes harder. “Monday through Friday, noon to seven.”

“That’s perfect. Pep, can you write that down?”

“I’m already ahead of you, Tony.”

The waitress scrunches her face up. “Wait a minute… are you-”

“Yep,” Tony says, as he turns and he and Pepper walk out of the little burger joint.

“I bet I made that woman’s day-” Tony says, as he’s putting on his sunglasses. “What do you think, Pep?” She doesn’t respond so Tony looks up to see Peter hugging Pepper. “Peter, what are you doing here kid?”

Peter lets go of Pepper and runs over the Tony and hugs him tightly. “Me and Dr. Strange just got done shopping! We came here to get something to eat.” Peter looks from Tony back to Pepper. “Aw, did you two just get finished eating?”

“Yeah, and unfortunately Tony has a meeting in half an hour,” Pepper says as she bites her lip.

“Aw,” Peter playfully kicks the floor. “Well, it’s okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Kid, the party is an adult party and-” Tony tries to reason with him.

“Mr. Banner said I could come. He said he didn’t really wanna attend the party so he’d tutor me in some biology.”

“I’ll kill him,” Tony whispers.

“What did you say, Mr. Stark?” Peter walks back over to him.

“Nothing! Where’s your chaperone? How’d you shake him?”

“Oh, he had to take a call from Mr. Wong,” Peter shrugged.

“Tony, we really should be going. The car’s waiting,” Pepper looked back to a parked car behind them.

“Yeah, okay,” He hugged Peter one more time and made his way over to the car.

“He can take care of himself for a few minutes, Tony. We’re talking about the same kid who single-handedly took down the Vulture and his illegal, black market alien weapons trading,” Pepper reassures him as she gets into the car and shuts the door behind her.

Tony looks to Peter and Peter waves happily.

Then a tall shadow appears behind Tony and he spins around quickly. He smacks into Stephen, who stumbles backward a little bit.

“Why are you always so quick to jump to violence?” Stephen mumbles as he reorientates himself. 

“Hey, you’re the one who left the kid alone on a random New York street,” Tony thumbs to Peter, standing behind them.

“Aren’t you the one who said he could be trusted?”

“Yeah, well, still. That doesn’t mean you can just go leaving him,” Tony stands directly next to Stephen and whispers, “He’s sensitive, you know.” 

Peter makes squinty eyes at them, trying to figure out what’s going on.

Stephen smiles so slightly, that Tony isn’t even sure that he actually saw it. “Fine, Stark. You win. I’ll take better care of your adopted son,” he says as he walks over to Peter. “Now, go enjoy your meeting.”

Peter and Stephen walk into the restaurant and after a few seconds, Tony gets into the car.

Pepper looks up from scrolling through her calendar app. “So,”

“So what?”

“How did that go? You two looked awfully close.”

“I was just laying down the law, letting him know how to take care of Peter.”

“Getting a little jealous about the amount of time Peter’s spending with him?”

“Do you know how much cooler it is to have a father with magic instead of a father with some boring robot suit technology?” Tony sighed as he buried his face in his hands.

“Why not both?” Pepper said, as the driver turned to car on and they pulled away from the restaurant.  
_________________________________

Stephen:

Stephen and Peter sit at the first booth next to the entrance of the burger joint.

“So, what did Mr. Stark say to you, Dr. Strange?” Peter asks, leaning forward across the table.

“Eh, nothing out of the ordinary,” Stephen responds, unwilling to give any more information.

“You two whispered for a while. It was a little suspicious. He didn’t threaten you with Mr. Banner again, did he? Because Mr. Banner is a total softie!”

“No, he didn’t mention Mr. Banner. We were having a conversation about your well being.”

“Awe,” Peter throws his arms up, “May knows where I am and she doesn’t mind!”

“Peter,” Stephen eyes him, “Please don’t yell in a public place.”

“Ugh, fine Dr. Strange,” Peter crosses his arms and looks out the window next to them. 

While Peter’s people watching Stephen excuses himself to the restroom.

The same waitress who served Tony and Pepper comes around to the table and Peter orders one Coke and one water. After she leaves Peter pulls her phone out and calls Wong.

Wong answers after a few rings: “What is it, Peter?”

“So, me and Dr. Strange ran into Mr. Stark today.”

“Did you?” Wong says, very interested. “How’d that go?”

“Idk, it was weird. Mr. Stark was acting all spooked at first. And then they started whispering to each other.” 

“Whispering, huh? Did Strange tell you what it was about?”

Peter frowns, “Just that it was about me.”

“That’s… better than I expected.”

“What do you mean, ‘better’? Isn’t it bad if they argue?”

Wong laughs for a while before he finally tells Peter that he has to go and hangs up. Peter’s left holding his phone and feeling more confused than he was before the phone call.  
__________

In the bathroom, Stephen splashes some water onto his face. He couldn’t tell if he had gone red when Tony stepped that close to him. He wasn’t even sure if Tony would have noticed, considering the height difference and the fact that Tony was so focused on Peter.

He stepped away from the sink, locked the bathroom door, and sat down. He closed his eyes and began to meditate. He’s not sure how long passes, but he’s floating again, body glowing a bright green. Just as he’s attempting to split his astral form from his physical body someone knocks on the door.

“Dr. Strange? You’ve been in here for like ten minutes and I think the waitress lady thinks we’re just trying to get free drinks or something. Are you okay?” Peter shouts through the door.

Stephen’s eyes snap open and he falls to the ground. “Ouch,” he mumbles. “Yes, I’m fine.” He swings the door open and Peter backs up to give him room to come outside of the bathroom.

Peter follows closely behind Stephen as they walk back to the booth. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re acting a little more strange than usual.”

“Ha, ha.” Stephen dryly laughs as he sits back down at the booth. “Very funny,” he says acidly.

Before Peter can retort, the waitress comes up. “So, what can I get you, two gentlemen, today?”

Peter perks up at being called a gentleman and rattles off his order of a normal cheeseburger with sweet potato fries.

The waitress turns to Stephen and he orders a simple Caesar salad with Italian vinaigrette.

After she walks away, Peter starts back up again. “I didn’t mean to make fun of your name. I didn’t even think about it. Well, I almost said that you’re acting weird but I thought that may have been ruder.” Peter shrugs as he plays with the silverware bundle on the table. 

“It’s okay, ki- Peter. I’m just grumpy because I haven’t been able to properly meditate yet today. It helps calm me down, keep at the anger and frustration at bay.”

“Kind of like when Mr. Stark’s PTSD acts up and he drinks all day?”

Stephen’s eyes get wide. “I don’t think that’s any of my business…”

“Well, he doesn’t do a good job of hiding it. I don’t know that he knows that I know... But it’s pretty obvious. Poor Pepper, and Thor, and Mr. Banner do their best to keep him straight, but he has his days where he falls off. I just wanna hurry up and turn 18 so that he can take me seriously too when I try to help him.”

“He seemed fine today,” Stephen says softly, before taking a drink of water: little beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

“I could tell it’s one of his bad days.”

“How?” Stephen asks, leaning forward a bit.

“Because I know the difference between his real smile and his fake smile.”

I want to know the difference, too. Stephen thinks to himself.


	11. Broken Hearts and Picnic Blankets

Tony:

After the final meeting, Pepper heads back to their car but Tony hesitates.

Pepper looks back at him, and then back at the car. She walks over and lightly taps on the driver's side window. “Go ahead and go home, we’ll be fine,” she reassures the man. 

He nods, and she walks over to join Tony. 

“Tell me what’s up,” she said as she links arms with Tony and they begin walking down the block.

“Central Park isn’t too far from here. It’s been a long time since I’ve just taken a walk, away from it all.”

“Then let’s go,” Pepper playfully nudges him. “You did have a suit fitting in about an hour, but I suppose we could cancel it,” she opens up her phone with her free arm.

“Is it possible to own too many suits?” Tony looks over at her.

“Never, the suits should be happy to be worn by Tony Stark.”

“Ha, do you think we can just push the meeting back by an hour?”

“I’ll call,” she unlinks her arm from Tony’s and steps aside.

He keeps walking, but he drastically slows his pace so he doesn’t leave Pepper too far behind.

He takes out his phone and texts Peter: “Hey kid, I hope you and Strange had a good brunch. Let me know if you need any money. I’m still not sure how you managed to afford to take Strange suit shopping, but something tells me it wasn’t just luck.”

He chuckles once before putting his phone up.

Pepper joins him, relinking their arms. “They had no problem at all adjusting your appointment!”

“Pep, you are actually the best person in my life,” Tony smiles widely at her.

“Aw, once upon a time I would have believed that, but I’m pretty sure my spot is being challenged.”

“Challenged?” Tony looks at her. “And who do you think by?”

Pepper smiles up at him as they cross the street over to the park. “Let’s walk over the bridge! And sit by the river, too.”  
________________________________

After their meal, Stephen and Peter portal back to the Sanctum. Stephen looks around with feelings of guilt. He feels like he’s abandoned the place that’s become his new sanctuary from the world. 

“I can go, Dr. Strange,” Peter says, awkwardly. “If you want to meditate now. Or if you need to do your… wizard duties.” He rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet.

Stephen turns around, slowly. He places the sling ring down on a table next to a giant, leather chair. “I think Wong would like to see you. He should be over shortly.”

“Okay!” Peter says as he plops down into the chair behind Stephen.

Stephen disappears into the upstairs section right as Wong opens up a portal next to Peter.

“Mr. Wong!” Peter yells as he jumps up.

Wong looks around, “Where’s Strange?”

“Ah, he ran upstairs, I guess he’s probably sick of me by now,” Peter said, scratching the back of his head.

“His stomach is probably in knots over tomorrow,” Wong pats Peter on the shoulder. “Got any homework, Pete?”

“Ugh, you KNOW I do. Actually,” Peter squirms away from Wong, “I kind of told Mr. Stark that I had it all done. So now I need to finish it so I can hang out at the compound tomorrow.”

Wong laughs. “You’re something else, Pete.” He creates a portal and they step through to Kamar-Taj.  
______________________

Stephen looks out the giant stained glass window on the second floor of the Sanctum. He leans his head against it and closes his eyes. He stands perfectly still for so long, one might assume he was a statue placed there for aesthetic purposes. 

And, they wouldn’t be far off.

His astral form quietly follows behind Peter and Wong through the portal. He’d been suspicious of them since Peter suggested the shopping trip and he wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on.

Peter sits down at one of the wooden tables in the Kamar-Taj library while Wong pours two cups of green tea.

Peter cracks open a physics book and Wong grabs a corresponding book from a bookshelf towards the back of the library. 

The scene is so dull Stephen begins to feel like a fool for following them.

As he turns to go back, he suddenly transported to the balcony of his old hospital.

He can’t turn his head. Literally, he can’t move his body, but even if he could he knows he wouldn’t be able to face the Ancient One. Not after he let her die on some foreign hospital bed instead of comfortably and naturally in Kamar-Taj.

“Arrogance and fear still keep you from learning the simplest and most significant lesson of all; It’s not about you,” The Ancient One’s words swirl around him in some sort of mini-tornado.

Stephen had been absolutely shocked when she told him that he still didn’t understand. He thought he had come far. He thought he had trained enough, made her proud.

He was both terrified and interested in her response when he asked her the question.

All he had to say was, “Which is?” and she tore his world apart.

His pain wasn’t about him, his power wasn’t about him, nothing he had worked for up until that point was about him. It was supposed to be about helping people, saving lives. Defending the truly defenseless, not crying over broken hands.

He held his translucent hands up towards the sky. Suddenly he had full control of his body again. He turned his hands over and again and watched the stars glow through them.

For the first time since he had lost his hands, he felt reconnected with them. He felt that they were beautiful in their own way. And he felt a pang of regret in his chest over having Wong write the letters to Tony, instead of him. It made the whole situation feel falsified.

Sure, they were his words. But it should have been his handwriting too. 

And just like that, he was back in the library. He observed that Peter and Wong had already completed a page of Peter’s homework. He didn’t feel much for spying on them anymore, and so he returned to his body.

A little more broken, and a little more healed.  
______________________________

Tony: 

Pepper had acquired a blanket from a nice older couple who had brought a spare, and she laid it out on the ground next to their favorite pond.

Tony sprawls out over it, barely leaving Pepper any room. She snuggles up to him, one arm across his chest. He put his arm around her back. She nuzzles her face into his neck and he smiles. 

“It’s days like this, that I wish I could have all of the time,” Tony sighs.

“You know, Tony several years ago would have fainted in horror if he heard you say that,” Pep retaliates.

“Ha, back then a lot of it was fabricated too,” Tony closes his eyes. 

“I know,” Pepper says softly as she presses her nose into his neck. “And I wanted to help you, but I was too self-centered back then. I was more upset that you were spending time with all those random women instead of with me. I was hurt… and I let you be hurt. I’m not proud of it, or myself.”

Tony turns his face over and lays his chin on the top of her head. “It’s okay, Pep. A part of me wanted to make you jealous. I wanted you to drive all those other girls away. I just wanted someone to… someone to fight for me, like how I was fighting for the whole world.”

“I would have put on the suit if I knew it would have kept you safe from harm.”

“You did, once. Sort of. And nearly gave me a heart attack, too.”

Pepper laughs, deeply and Tony joins her.

“I must have looked so stupid,” she finally admits. “I always wanted to ask you, but I was too afraid.”

“No, you looked just like the strong and brave woman you’ve always been.”

“Ha,” Pepper chuckles once, harshly, “In another life, we could have been together.”

“We still could,” Tony says, opening his eyes and pulling back to look at her.

“Oh, Tony…” Pepper sighs.

“It’s not like you can’t handle me, and you know me better than anyone else. We’ve been working as partners for so long now.”

“Partners, huh?” Pepper beams at him.

“We could be partners in more than just business,” Tony sits up and looks at her.

She stares up at him from the blanket, some strands slipping out of her normally perfect ponytail and into her eyes. She closes her eyes and folds her arms over her chest.

“Tony, more than anything I would love to say yes,” she pauses for what feels like an eternity. She knows this is her only chance, but she also knows that he’s meeting Stephen tomorrow and that it’s all he’s been looking forward too, whether he’ll say it or not. “But, we’re so great as best friends. And, I get the feeling that your person is coming much sooner than you think.”

Tony scrunches his face up, partly out of confusion and partly due to the glaring sun beating down on them. “Are you apart of this conspiracy mission Peter’s running?”

“Huh, I haven’t heard anything about that.”

“That’s strange considering we just saw them earlier and Peter was whispering something to you before I got outside of the building.”  
________________

Flashback:

Peter’s hugs Pepper pretty tightly. And Pepper’s not complaining about the affection, but Peter’s never crossed the line of touching her before. She can’t help but wonder what’s going on when he starts whispering to her.

“Mr. Wong gave me some money to take Dr. Strange shopping, We picked out a red shirt, with these white details that are going to drive Mr. Stark crazy. Can you make sure he doesn’t wear something all red? Maybe just a red shirt? So they match but it’s not too much.”

“Just enough to argue over,” Pepper smiles as she whispers back.

“The potential is all in the sass,” Peter says as Tony looks at them.  
__________________

“I can’t seem to recall. I left my mind in that last meeting,” Pepper says, sitting up and pulling the edge of the blanket up around her.

“Aren’t you the one who’s usually excited for meetings?” Tony scoots back and pulls the other edge up around him.

“I’m just excited when I’m able to get you to go. It’s the small victories.


	12. Washing Dishes in Outer Space

Stephen:

Sometime later that night Wong joins Stephen in the Sanctum.

“How did his studying go?” Stephen asks Wong, as he’s reading an ancient book of spells.

“He’s a very bright kid, he just needed someone to double check his work. He wants to graduate with a 4.0.” Wong responds as he steps into the kitchen of the Sanctum. “Have you eaten yet?”

“No,” Stephen responds dully as if eating is a chore that he avoids.

“I should have known just by the state of these bare cabinets,” one hinge squeaks loudly as he attempts to open it. “How do you survive?”

“On the sustenance of knowledge,” he says flatly.

“I’ll make some pasta. White or red sauce?”

“Surprise me,” Stephen says, getting up from his leather chair and placing an apple on the end table.

“Please don’t tell me you’re going to Dormammu that apple… again,” Wong sighs as he pours water into a giant pot. “That’s a sentence I never thought I would have to say.”

“Well, I could hardly try any spells out on you.”

“We could safely train at Kamar-Taj, but you hardly come around nowadays.” he turns on the front right burner of the stove and places the pot down.

Stephen freezes, mid-spell, two glowing red glyphs at the ends of his hands. “I made a promise to defend the Sanctum and I cannot do that from Kamar-Taj.”

“You don’t have to kill yourself over what happened, Strange,” he watches the water evaporate into the air and realizes that he should probably turn on the fan above the oven. “We have monitoring systems set up, you don’t have to live your entire life behind these walls.”

“I don’t have a reason not to,” Stephen thinks of Tony before he resumes his spell and tunes out Wong.  
______________________  
Peter: 

When Peter gets home he realizes that his phone has been dead and he’s nervous that May is going to lay into him.

He steps inside the apartment cautiously, hoping not to have scared her like he has countless times before. 

“Hey, Peter,” May says softly from the kitchen. She’s got her hair pulled up into a bun and she’s grilling some hamburger meat on the stovetop. “Did you have a good day?”

Peter sighs in relief and jogs over to her. “I did! I spent the day with Mr. Stark, Ms. Potts, and their new friends Dr. Strange and Mr. Wong.” 

“Are they new Avengers?”

“Mr. Stark wants Dr. Strange to be, but he keeps saying no,” Peter says as he sits down at the kitchen table. 

“Huh, it must be hard to turn someone as charming as Tony Stark down.”

“I think Dr. Strange just doesn’t like people. He stays in his creepy wizard building all day. I don’t think it’s good for him.”

“Some people are just introverted, Peter. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But anyone who hangs out with you can’t be all that introverted. You’re definitely hard to keep up with,” she flips the pattie over. “Speaking of,” she turns around and glares at him. “It was just hanging out today, right? No friendly neighborhood Spider-Man stuff?”

“No superhero stuff today, May, it’s been pretty quiet lately. Actually, Dr. Strange says his order monitors the Earth and if any aliens get too close, they’ll know it,” Peter grabs an apple from the bowl on the table and bites into it.

May sighs in relief, removing the hand she had unconsciously placed on her chest. “That’s nice to know. He should meet Wanda. I bet they’d have plenty of interesting conversations about magic. And, Peter,” she glances back towards him and he stops, mid-bite, “Don’t ruin your appetite before dinner.”

“Yes, ma’am, but also, I’m a growing boy with a superhero metabolism. I could eat all day, May!” 

May chuckles as she places a pattie on a bun. “Well, could you at least help me over here? I need the cheese, pickles, and mustard from the refrigerator.”  
_________________________

Tony:

When Tony and Pepper get back to the compound Thor and Bruce are playing a video game in the lounge. 

Bruce looks up at Tony. “Hey Tony, Vision, and Wanda are here,” he says softly.

Tony looks back at Pepper, and Pepper shrugs indicating that she didn’t know that they were coming.

“Why are they at?” Tony responds.

“In the training room,” Bruce smiles meekly, before turning back to the game.

Tony walks off and Pepper walks after him, but he turns and shakes his head. She nods and takes a seat beside Thor. “Hello, tiny human,” Thor greats Pepper warmly.

“Hello, giant God of Thunder! Can you make sure the weather is nice tomorrow night?” She chuckles.

“Now where would be the fun in that?” Thor responds, and that’s the last thing Tony hears before he takes the elevator down to the training floor.

The doors feel as though they take years to open, and when they finally do he spots Vision and Wanda holding hands on the opposite end of the giant space.

They hear the echo of his footsteps on the ground and turn to face him. Vision smiles warmly, but Wanda retains her neutral expression.

Tony tries to ignore the pang in his arc reactor.

“Hello, Master Stark,” Vision says warmly when Tony’s finally within hearing distance of them.

He stops walking. “Hey Vis, what’s the surprise visit for?”

“Your party, of course.” Vision responds as though it’s the most obvious thing in the world.

“And you Wanda?” Tony looks longingly at her.

“Clint and I had a long talk, and I realized that you and Steve were both worried about me in your own ways. You took care of me and gave me a home. You rescued me from Sokovia when you didn’t have to.” She says, her fingertips lighting up gently with her red colored magic.

“Wanda,” Vision rubs her hands gently. “It’s okay.”

“I know it is. I have my freedom traveling the world with you. But, I did want to see you again Tony. I wanted to spend some time with the rest of my family.”

“I hate to break it to you, kid,” Tony says, stepping closer to Vision and Wanda, “But I don’t think you should expect to see Rogers, Romanoff, Barnes, none of team Cap.”

Wanda looks up to Vision, who frowns.

“It’s weird, you know. Seeing you outside of your cape,” Tony points to Vision.’

“I can’t travel the world as an Avenger, now can I?”

“I do it all the time,” Tony shrugs.

“And that’s what broke you,” Wanda says, gently touching his chest.

Tony looks down at her hand, then back up at her sad face, and further up at Vision, who’s looking down at Wanda with a face full of love.

“I think I’m going to call it a night…” Tony says as he goes to turn and leave.

“Tony…” Wanda pleads, “I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s okay. It’s just been a long day full of boring meetings,” He turns away from them and fakes a smile, “But tomorrow night will be plenty of fun, team Cap or no.” And with that, he gets back on the elevator and leaves.  
_______________________

Stephen:

Later that night, Stephen finally managed to chase Wong out of the Sanctum after he ate two helpings of pasta.

He brushed his teeth and climbed into bed.

Now he lays, on top of the comforter, and stares at the ceiling.

Did he believe what he said earlier? About not having a reason to leave the Sanctum? Peter, a kid he just met two days ago, got him to spend more time outside than he had done in a year.

Well, it was in the name of Tony Stark, who is absolutely convinced that Stephen’s going to join the Avengers. He had planned to maybe just be Avengers… adjacent? Or perhaps a consultant for those really bad days. But, Tony seemed to want all or nothing. Tony operated in a world of zeroes or one hundreds, whereas Stephen understands the delicate intricacies of percentages. Surgeries were percentages, death and life were percentages, 

The chance of Tony picking him was a percentage.

There are other super-powered individuals in the world. Wong knows much more about the mystic artes than he could even claim too. And Mordo is still out there somewhere. 

And how could Stephen even begin to compare to the caliber of Tony’s teammates? He’s got a god of thunder… and… in Sokovia… wasn’t there another magic user? A young woman who was working for Hydra? Did he still see her? Did she still destroy cities without even trying?

He shook his head.

“You have such a capacity for goodness. You always excelled. But not because you crave success, but because of your fear of failure,” the Ancient One’s words swirl around him again. And he feels as though he isn’t laying on a bed at all, rather, floating in an empty space. 

“It’s what made me a great doctor,” Stephen utters.

“It’s precisely what kept you from greatness,” the words swirl around him until he’s in the stars.

Here he is, floating through space in his pajamas, completely stunned.

The Ancient One, in a ghostly form, appears to him.

“Stephen,” her voice echoes all throughout the vast emptiness around them.  
_________________________

Tony:

Tony lays down in his bed, still fully clothed in his suit. 

There’s a gentle knock at the door, and Tony sits up on his elbows to see Pepper hovering in the doorway.

She walks in and sits on the end of the bed. “How did the reunion go?”

“Wanda... apologized to me,” Tony says, laying back down. “Apparently Clint came out of retirement enough to work some magic for me.”

“I miss Clint,” Pepper smiles sadly. “It was so kind of him to give you all his house as a sanctuary.”

“Heh,” is all Tony says in response.

“All right,” Pepper pats his leg. “I’m going home for the night. But you know Bruce and Thor are right down the hall if you need them. Vis, too. He is your son, after all.” She gets up and walks out, not looking back at Tony.

He gets up, shuts and locks his door, and changes out of his suit, throwing it into a laundry hamper at the edge of his bathroom.

He pulls some silk pajama bottoms out of his dresser and slips them on.

He steps into his bathroom and washes his face off. He looks at himself in the mirror and wonders how he aged so quickly in the past few years. And then laughs at himself for even wondering, when the answer was obvious.

He pokes at the giant bags under his eyes for a bit before sighing and admitting defeat.

He goes back to this bed, and lays back down. He pulls the blanket up until his face is covered too.  
___________________

Peter:

After he finished eating dinner with May, he collects all the dishes to wash. He piles them all up in one side of the sink and fills the other with water and dish soap.

As he’s waiting on the sink to fill he walks in his room to plug his phone in.

After a few seconds, it turns up and pings with a message.

Peter expects it to be from his best friend Ned, but instead, it says Mr. Stark and his heart drops.

“AW MAN HOW LONG AGO DID I GET THIS MESSAGE MR STARK IS GOING TO THINK I HATE HIM” He facepalms before he opens the message and reads it.

Peter texts Tony:

“Thanks for worrying Mr. Stark, but I’m really fine on money. And I think you’ll be proud of the choice we made. It’s a really good one. Dr. Strange-”

“PETER BENJAMIN PARKER” May yells from the kitchen.

Peter runs in to see that the sink had overflowed and water is dripping down the cabinets and onto the floor.

“Oh my gosh, May, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry!” He races to the bathroom and grabs two towels. He runs back and throws them on the floor below the sink.

May turns off the faucet and kneels down next to Peter.

“I’m really sorry, May. I was texting Mr. Stark. He sent me a message a bunch of hours ago and I felt bad for missing it.”

May tries to stay stern, but she sighs and pats Peter on the head. “It’s okay. I don’t think the tiles were damaged. Let’s just hope the downstairs neighbors don’t call complaining about any leaks.”   
_________________

Tony:

Tony is scrolling through his messages and goes to send Peter another message when he sees that Peter’s typing. And typing. And typing. And he’s scared that something’s happened. He’s never seen Peter type this much before. Anxiety creeps up on him, but he takes deep breaths. He tries to reason with himself that Peter can talk a lot when he’s excited. And maybe he just had a really good time out with Strange today.  
__________________

Peter:

After he finally finishes the dishes and sets the towels on the shower rod to dry out, he goes back to his room.

“AW DANGIT I LEFT THE MESSAGE OPEN”

He scrambles to pick up his phone and finish typing.

“What was I saying about Dr. Strange?” Peter sits for a moment, trying to remember.

May knocks on his door frame, and Peter turns around.

“I’m still REALLY sorry about before, May. You can take my phone if you want,” he unplugs it and holds it out to her.

She shakes her head, “It’s fine Peter. You didn’t mean to. I know that sometimes you’ve got your head in the clouds. I’m the queen of the clouds. I can’t be mad at you for it. It’s just something that runs in the family.” 

She walks over and hugs him close.

“Try to get some sleep tonight. Dr. Banner says he’s having you over to the compound.”

Peter’s face lights up. “Yeah, it’s going to be a good time.”

May lets him go and she turns to walk away. “I’m going to sleep, but if you need anything you know my door is always open.” She leaves his room and continues down the hallway to her own room.

Peter goes back to his text to Tony. He backspaces the part about Dr. Strange and sends the message.  
___________________

Tony:

Tony’s phone finally pings and he opens it to see a whole three sentences from Peter. And hardly sentences at that. He sits in confusion for a bit wondering what else Peter was going to say.

“Well, he doesn’t know that I know he was typing for forever, so I probably shouldn’t say anything.” He says out loud to himself.

He puts his phone back down on the nightstand and lets sleep take him.


	13. A Big Helping of Anxiety Pancakes

Stephen:

“Yes..?” He hesitates to answer, afraid of what’s going on. 

“You’re focused too clearly on yourself. Take a step back. The order needs you, it’s true, but so do the Avengers. You’re allowed to have a life past our borders,” she extends a hand to him.

It gently touches his shoulder and he feels even lighter as if his astral form could float away forever and ever, leaving his physical body behind to decompose.

“I’m not ready for the real world… my hands…” Stephen holds them up but they’re invisible.

“They are your greatest obstacle, your most clear weakness. And yet, if you can look past them, you’ll find someone who can heal them for you in a way that was never possible for me,” she says as she touches the space where his hands were and makes them partially appear. 

“And if I’m not ready to love?”

“Then you’ll die as miserably as you lived,” and with that, she disappears and removes the anchor from Stephen’s astral form.

His astral form smashes into his physical body so hard that, for a moment, he thinks he broke the bed. He’s too afraid to move, for fear that the Ancient One will pop back up and scold him again. 

He stares at the ceiling for the better part of the night and early morning, afraid.

He felt the loss of her anchor on his soul and it deeply disturbed him. He so desperately desired another anchor and, yet, he hadn’t been allowing himself to search for one.  
————————-

Tony: 

Tony wakes up in the morning still confused as to why Peter never sent him the paragraph that he had spent forever typing.

He sits up and instantly realizes that he never went to his suit appointment after him and Pepper left Central Park.

“Shit!” He yells as he hops out of bed and stumbles over to his wardrobe.

“PEPPER!!” He yells as he swings open the doors to the wardrobe and yanks a suit down from a hanger. He stumbles into his bathroom and quickly removes his silk bottoms.

“What’s going on?” Bruce asks softly at the door.

“Where’s Pepper Brucie boy?” Tony says as he’s buttoning his light pink shirt.

“She’s still at her house. It’s barely even 9am Tony.”

“I need her right away. I have to pick up my custom suit. We need to make sure the measurements are right. It has to be ready to be worn TONIGHT.” Tony freaks out as he pulls his black pants on.

He opens up the door and hands his suit jacket to Bruce who helps him pull it on.

“Tony, it’s going to be fine. You have plenty of suits.”

“This is different Bruce,” Tony says as he ruffles his own hair and unbuttons the top button of his shirt. “My phone’s dead. I forgot to charge it. Can I borrow yours?”

“Yeah, sure. It’s down in the lab though.”

Tony jogs over to the elevator and pressures the down arrow. 

When he makes his way into the lab he sees Vision sitting on a work stool, reading over some of Tony’s most recent blueprints.

“It’s impressive Tony, it might just work,” Vision says without looking up at Tony.

Tony swipes Bruce’s phone up from the table and dials Pepper’s number.  
———————-

Pepper:

As she’s blowing drying her hair, she hears her phone go off. When she turns it over she sees that it’s Bruce calling her.

They normally only talk when something’s wrong with Tony so she answers saying, “What did Tony do now?”

“....This IS Tony, and we forgot my suit appointment Pep.”

“Wait, why do you have Bruce’s phone? What happened to yours?”

“Pep, please. Help me out here. I can’t go on like this,” Tony pleads.

Pepper shakes her head, a wide smile on her face. “Okay, okay. Calm down. Let me finished getting ready. I’ll call the tailor and then I’ll be on my way to get you.”

“Thank you, thank you, a million times thank you Pep.”

“Honestly, Tony Stark. You’re such a mess. What would you do without me?”

“Die,” Tony says and he hangs up the phone.  
———————

Tony: 

“Why are you having anxiety over a suit? Is someone special coming to the party?” Vision asks, getting up from his seat.

“A potential new candidate for the team. Or… what’s left of the team.”

“A new candidate?”

“A magic user, like Wanda.”

Vision cocks his head. “Have you mentioned this to her?”

“Of course not,” Tony throws his arms up. “I didn’t even know the two of you were coming until you just appeared out of nowhere last night.”

“I think she’ll be delighted,” Vision remarks and excuses himself. 

As he goes to are onto the elevator, Bruce and Thor step off. 

“Tony-“ Bruce says, softly.

Tony shoves Bruce’s phone into his chest and shuffles past them to catch the elevator with Vision.

They ride in silence.  
————————

Bruce: 

“I never know what’s going on with him anymore,” he frowns to Thor.

“He only opens himself up to Pepper. It’s not anything you did, Banner,” Thor says, patting Bruce on the shoulder.

Bruce’s phone rings and he answers.

“Tony, are you ready? I’m downstairs.” 

“Hey, Pepper. It’s Bruce, actually,” he says, a little disappointed.

“Oh, hey Bruce! I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure if he had taken your phone hostage or not.”

“Nah, it’s all right. I’ll let him know-“

“Oh, he’s here now. Oh, and one more thing, Bruce. Can you make sure his phone is charging?”

Pepper hangs up before hearing Bruce’s response.

Bruce sighs and sits down at his work desk.

“You know they don’t mean anything rude by it,” Thor says, trying to cheer Bruce up. “They’re just caught in their own little world.”  
—————————-

Stephen: 

When Stephen wakes up, he’s not sure how many hours of sleep he actually received.

He groans loudly before rolling out of bed.

He immediately is greeted by the smell of smoke and he runs out of his room in nothing but his pajama bottoms.

In the kitchen he finds Wong and Peter making breakfast. Peter’s burnt a few sausages, but Wong seems to have it under control.

Wong looks back at the disheveled Stephen and laughs deeply from his stomach.

Stephen mutters a few cuss words under his breath.

Peter piles the sausage onto a plate before turning around and greeting Stephen.

“Morning Dr. Strange!” He waves.

“Don’t you have class, kid?” Stephen asks as he pulls the throw blanket from the back of his leather chair and wraps up in it.

Peter frowns at being called a kid. “Yeah, in half an hour. But Mr. Wong invited me over.”

“Did he now?” Stephen eyes Wong while Peter isn’t looking.

“I can go, though,” Peter says as he grabs his backpack from beside the kitchen table and slings it over his shoulder.

Stephen holds out his hand. “I didn’t mean to run you off, Peter. I was just surprised to see you here first thing in the morning.”

“It’s okay, Dr. Strange. I’ll see you tonight,” he smiles before taking a bite out of pancake he swiped from the table on his way out.  
——————

On his way to school Peter texts Pepper:

“DR STRANGE IS NOT A MORNING PERSON”

He sends the text and laughs a little, at the fact that he, Pepper and Wong are plotting to bring the two men together.

Once inside the cafeteria, he joins Ned and MJ at a table for breakfast. Ned’s reading a comic, instead of eating and MJ is in the middle of a speech about how eating the cafeteria food is equivalent to torture.  
———————-

Stephen:

Stephen sits down at the table as Wong piles a plate of eggs, sausage, and pancakes in front of him.

“Rough night?” Wong asks, as Stephen massages his temples.

“The Ancient One appeared to me in the astral plane. In a place, she once took me when she first trained me.”

“Oh,” Wong says, as he sits down.

“She lectured me..:”

“There’s no surprise there,” Wong jokes.

“She wants me to find love.” He says as he cuts one of the fried eggs and watches the yolk run.

“Does she now?” Wong says, pulling his phone out and going to text Peter.

“What happened to your manners? A phone at the table? Tch, really now Wong,” Stephen’s half teasing and half irritated as he’s trying to pour his heart out to Wong.

“Kamar-Taj calls,” he says as he gets up and excuses himself.

On the other side of his portal, free from Stephen’s prying eyes he sends Peter a text:

“Ancient One told Stephen to find love.”

Stephen finishes eating his breakfast and then groans at the number of dishes that Wong and Peter left behind in their impromptu breakfast.

He goes to his closet and studies the suit that Peter bought for him.

When he touches it, he’s transported to the astral plane again.

“This suit is the key to it all,” the Ancient One whispers.

He lets it go and quickly shuts his closet back up.

“I’m not ready for love yet, I haven’t even shaved,” Stephen jokes with her.  
————————

Peter:

While Peter’s in his first period he notices his phone light up and he sneaks a peak while his teacher is facing the board.

It’s a text from Wong that Peter immediately forwards to Pepper.   
———————-

Tony:

The entire car ride over to the tailor’s Tony fidgets more than Pepper has ever seen him fidget before.

She takes his hand in hers in an attempt to steady him.

He smiles, meekly and stops tapping the seat as he had been doing.

“Tony, it’s going to be fine. You always look EXTREMELY handsome,” she strokes his hand.

“Heh, I know. But tonight I want to be on the top of my game. I want everyone to be jealous. I want paparazzi to crash the party.”

“Yeah,” Pepper snorts. “That’ll be over Happy’s dead body.” 

“You only short around me,” Tony points out as the car comes to a stop.

Pepper flushes red.

“You should let it out around everyone. It’s cute.”

He opens his door and gets out of the car.

Pepper follows after him. “No one else makes me laugh like you do,” she shyly admits as she follows him into the building.  
————————-

Steve:

“A party?” Steve says, dryly.

“Yes,” Wanda answers, from the other end of the phone. “Please, he was so broken last night when I looked into his eyes. It’s been years since the fight.”

Steve shifts uncomfortably in his position while Natasha mouths “Who is that?” to him.

“Wanda,” he mouths back as Natasha swipes the phone from him.

“Let me get this straight, Tony’s throwing some bash tonight and you want us to crash? Don’t you think he’ll just have us escorted out?” She asks Wanda.

“I know he won’t. Vis and I discussed it last night. He needs you all back.”

“Even Bucky?” Natasha asks coldly as she looks past Steve to Bucky who just entered the room.

“Yes, especially Bucky. I don’t think he’ll ever be able to heal if he can’t meet with all of you again.” Wanda begs.

“It’s not like you to care so much about him, Wanda.” Natasha points out.

“Clint helped me to understand Tony,” Wanda responds.

“Oh, Clint,” Natasha sings.

Steve takes the phone back from Nat, who sighs at him as she walks over to stand beside Bucky.

“We’ll discuss it, Wanda. That’s all I can give you,” Steve says, gently.

“I’ll accept it,” Wanda barters, and then hangs up.

“Well,” Steve turns to them.

“Well?” Nat says back.

“Let’s go,” Bucky breaks the awkward silence. “Let’s go see Stark and Banner and Bruce.”

“You sure?” Steve cocks his head.

Bucky nods, saying nothing else.

“Guess it’s settled then. I’ll pack some knives and my suit.. just in case,” Nat smiles devilishly.  
————————-

Tony:

Tony’s all black suit fits like a glove. He tips the tailor a generous amount, and after an hour in the shop, he and Pepper finally leave.

“See? It all worked out,” she says as she elbows Tony in the chest.

Tony feels his stomach do a couple of flips. “Yeah..”

“You knooooow,” she says as she runs a few steps in front of him and turns to face him. “It’s Peter’s lunchtime in about twenty minutes. Why don’t you go and meet him?”

Tony eyes her suspiciously.

“It’s just that, you’ve been so busy that you haven’t spent much time with him recently. You’ve only seen him in passing.” She says as she walks backward.

Little did Tony know, while he was paying attention to the tailor Pepper received an interesting message from Peter. She hadn’t texted him back because Tony would have made jokes about a secret admirer or something else less tasteful, but she wanted to take the opportunity to set the wheels in motion.

“Yeah, why not? I can suffer through some awful cafeteria food for a day.”

Pepper smiles at him as he jogs over to the car and asks the driver to take him to Peter’s high school.

She lingers in front of the tailor’s shop until she’s sure that Tony’s headed for the high school and then she takes her own car back to the compound.  
————————

Pepper:

As soon as she parks in the driveway, she runs upstairs and immediately sets to helping the hired hands with the decorations for the party.

Wanda appears and offers to help.

Pepper gladly accepts her help and after a bit of meaningless chatter, Wanda confesses.

“So…. I invited Steve, Nat, and Bucky.” 

Pepper drops the plates she had been holding and Wanda uses her magic to retrieve them before they smashed into a million pieces on the ground.

Pepper turns to her. “And… what did Steve say?”

“He said that they would be coming.”

“And does… does Tony know?” A look of terror crosses over Pepper’s face.

“No,” Wanda answers and the room is filled with deafening silence.

“Okay- okay,” Pepper paces back and forth. “We can fix this. We can still turn this around. We have to keep Tony calm or he’ll scare off Stephen,” she talks to herself.

“The sorcerer? What’s so special about him?”

Pepper stops dead in her tracks. “Tony’s in love with Stephen. He just doesn’t know it yet.”  
——————————-

At lunch, Peter, MJ, and Ned sit at the same table from breakfast and practice some questions for the upcoming debate.

A buzz spreads through the cafeteria and Peter looks up to see Tony walking towards him.

“Mr. Stark!” He jumps up and runs over to him. He hugs him tightly and Tony hugs back. He ruffles Peter’s hair a little before he grabs a seat at the table next to Ned. “Hi Guy in the Chair. Been hacking anymore of my technology recently?”

“N-no sir,” Ned responds frantically. “That was just the one time and Peter made me do it!”

“NED!” Peter yells as MJ laughs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I did it.
> 
> I wrote Team Cap in.
> 
> But trust me, it's gonna be great for IronStrange.


	14. The Final Countdown

Tony:

Tony leaves Peter feeling happy that Pepper suggested the lunch to him. 

His phone pings and it’s Pepper reminding him that he has one meeting before he’s free for the day.

Tony drags his feet all the way to the car. He hates going to meetings without Pepper. It makes him feel naked. He feels less valuable, less powerful without her there. He knows she’s a force to be reckoned with and so do those who meet with her.  
______________________

Stephen:

Stephen stares at himself in the mirror. He has his suit on and he’s checking it out from various angles. It’s his first time trying red out. Usually he’d go for a neutral dark blue or black. But Peter was adamant about the red. And, Stephen wasn’t wholly against trying new things.

But wearing red felt like infringing upon Tony’s terrority. And after the verbal beating Stephen had given Tony earlier in the week, he felt a bit guilty at challenging the man in dress as well.

Or maybe Tony would see it as a peace offering. I’m wearing red like you to symbolize that I’m one of you, he reconciles with himself.

One of you.

One of the Avengers.

Is that what I want?  
____________________

Steve:

“Why isn’t instant teleportation a thing yet,” Nat whines from the back of the car. Steve’s at the wheel, and Bucky’s in the passenger seat.

“It probably is, in Wakanda,” Bucky remarks to her.

“Then why didn’t you call T’Challa?” Nat says she she kicks the back of Steve’s chair.

“Natasha, please. We are all equally uncomfortable meeting with Tony tonight.”

“Oh, PLEASE. I’m not even focused on Tony! I’m talking about this heat!” 

“Well, that’s what you get for wearing your suit underneath your normal clothes,” Bucky snorts.

“How did you-?” Nat asks.

“It’s pretty obvious,” Steve chimes in.

“SO, you’re worried about seeing Tony?” Nat prodes.

“Of course I am. It’s been years, Nat. We don’t even have each other’s phone numbers anymore,” Steve sighs as he tightens his grip on the steering wheel.

“Steve…” Bucky looks over at him. “Don’t stress over this. It’s a party for god's sake.”  
___________________________

Peter:

Peter feels anxious during school all day. So, when the bell finally rings for his last period to be over he races out as quickly as he can. 

Ned tries to stop him and Peter motions to his cell phone.

Peter rides his bike all the way to the compound. He’s barely got any breath left by the time he pulls up. He runs in and jogs around looking for Pepper.

Bruce walks into the foyer to see what all the commotion is about. “Oh, Peter, if you’re looking for Tony, he isn’t here yet.”

“Nope, not Mr. Stark! Where’s Ms. Potts?”

Bruce looks a little shocked. “Don’t let Tony know he’s been replaced,” Bruce says as he motions for Peter to follow him.

As soon as Peter sees Pepper he runs up to her excitedly, and then he notices Wanda. He skids to a stop, and stares at her, eyes wide open.

“W-wanda?!” He yells.

“Hey, Spider-boy,” she waves, a faint smile on her lips.

“Wait. when did you get here?” Peter asks, totally confused.

“Me and Vis arrived late last night. We came for Tony’s party,” she responds looking from Pepper to Peter.

“I think it’s nice to have them back,” Bruce states, hovering awkwardly in the background.

“Thank you, Bruce!” Wanda smiles to him.

“Anyway, Peter, what were you in such a rush about?” Bruce reminds him.

“Oh, oh yeah! I wanted to help with the party set-up!”

“You’re more than welcome, too!” Pepper responds, “Except, Wanda, Bruce, make sure Peter doesn’t touch a single one of the bottles of alcohol.” She eyes them all, in turn.

Peter swallows, nervously. “I- I didn’t have any plans to, ma’am.”

“Well then that just makes Bruce and Wanda’s jobs much easier, doesn’t it?” She grins evilly at him.  
___________________

Tony:

By the time Tony gets back to the compound, it’s been totally transformed.

There’s punch bowls, and ice sculptures, and food tables, and the roof of the compound has been transformed into a giant dance floor.

Tony steps back, while still outside the building, to absorb it all.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Pepper says, as she steps outside to greet him. “But don’t worry, I swear I won’t let you fall off of the roof. You have PLENTY of designated babysitters tonight,” she laughs.

“It’s the big night, huh?” Tony rocks back and forth. “The first step to making the Avengers whole again.”

Pepper freezes. She tries not to show any sign of shock on her face, but she’s nervous that Tony somehow found out about Steve and company.

“You know, before this was about impressing the wizard, it was just about you having fun. Remember that? F-u-n?” She sasses him playfully.

“Mhm, I do. But it isn’t for us old folks, like me.” He chuckles.

“You’ll always be young at heart, or, should I say at arc reactor,” she chuckles again and Tony swats at her. She runs away, blazing a fast trail despite being in high heels and Tony’s completely shocked at how amazing of a woman she is.

“Oh, Pepper Potts. You’re always outdoing yourself.” He says out loud, as he enters the compound.

“SURPRISE!” Peter, Wanda and Thor pop confetti onto Tony as he enters.

Tiny pieces land in his hair, on his arms, and on his shoes.

“Is this a ten-year-olds birthday party?” He teases.

Peter sticks his tongue out at Tony before retreating after Pepper.

“Where’s the boyfriend?” He says, looking at Wanda.

She lays her popper down onto the entrance table. “He’s taking care of a very important last minute meeting before the party. He told me to apologize to you for him.”

“Already sick of me, huh?” He ruffles Wanda’s hair as he passes by her.

“Smooth save,” Thor says as he nudges her. But the force of the nudge knocks her sideways.

“Have you always been that strong?” Wanda asks, recovering her breath.

“If I had fought in that little war you all had, whatever side I had fought for would have absolutely won,” Thor beams back at her.

“And what side would that have been?” She asks, deeply curious.

“My own, so that I could have knocked some sense into everyone,” Thor says as he walks after Tony.

“Thor,” Wanda looks after him, “Truly the wisest of us all.”  
______________________

Vision:

Vision waits some ways off in the forest, away from the sensors of the compound. Of course, he had already taken the time to disable them earlier before he left. The only person he warned being Dr. Banner, just to avoid seeing any giant green monsters tonight.

He paces back and forth, he peacoat flapping in the wind behind him. It’s not actually cold outside, but he misses the cape more and more every day. It makes him feel empty when he isn’t wearing it. He was created to fight alongside Tony and to help keep the peace after all. And he isn’t doing much of either these days.

He can only hope that agreeing with Wanda about inviting Mr. Rogers, Mr. Barnes, and Ms. Romanoff would come as a positive act to Tony and that he would receive the gift warmly.

As Steve’s vehicle approaches, Vision looks his thoughts.

Steve stops a safe distance from Vision and hops out. He walks up to Vision and they shake hands.

“Vis,” Steve nods.

 

“Mr. Rogers,” Vision nods back.

“You know you can call me Steve, Vis. We’re friends,” Steve assures him as he lets go of his hand.

“Forgive me,” Vision replies.

An awkward silence passes.

“How was your trip? Safe, I presume?” Vision inquires, looking back towards the Jeep.

“Yeah, pretty boring if you ask me. Nat and Buck didn’t even fight that much, which is new.”

“Everyone must be nervous, but it’s going to be alright. Ms. Potts and Mr. Parker have been working very hard to ensure that everything goes smoothly tonight.”

“Parker, the kid?” Steve asks.

“Yes, Tony has, more or less, adopted him. Not legally, of course. But he does so very much care for him,” there’s a hint of a smile at the corner of Vision’s lips.

“You’re his kid, too” Steve pats his arm.

“I’m perhaps too grown to be the proper child that Tony desires,” Vision responds, just a little jokingly.

“Tony Stark, finally ready to settle down and have children, huh? It’s a new world,” Steve places a hand on his hip.

Nat rolls down her window and hangs out of it. “What’s taking so long? It’s HOT in here. And this time, I mean the weather is too hot, not me,” she calls out to them.

Bucky facepalms and Steve and Nat bust out into laughter.

“Everything’s ready? We can sneak in through the back undetected?” Steve looks back to Vision.

“Don’t make it sound so much like an attack,” Vision cringes.

“Don’t worry, we’d never fight with civilians around,” Steve pats him on the arm again before hauling ass back to the Jeep.

Vision sighs deeply.  
________________________

Stephen:

For the last hour or so, Stephen’s been trying to meditate to calm his soul before the party. Except that, he can’t even get off the ground. He can’t find any inner peace. He can’t even connect with the Ancient One.

In fact, all he can focus on is Tony Stark.

The last time he saw Tony, Tony practically knocked him over outside of a random burger joint.

Tony was shorter than he imagined when they stood next to each other. He wondered how Ironman always managed to look so mighty on television when he was actually so small in real life.

He shook his head in defeat.

Everything that had happened in the past few days of his life revolved around Tony. 

There were still three hours to pass before the party started and Stephen felt like he was slowly going insane.

He had texted both Peter and Wong and gotten no response back. He really didn’t know who else to turn to. He had already vowed to stop bothering Christine.

Maybe… a walk?

He attempted to open a portal up to Kamar-Taj but his magic failed him.

He groaned in frustration.

So, a normal walk then? Through the streets of New York. In a red Gucci suit.

He walked over to the entrance of the Sanctum and hesitated.

He turned back and grabbed his cell phone from the end table next to his leather chair. 

He turned it on and, thankfully, it was at eighty-four percent.  
He opened up the Sanctum doors, using his arms, and it felt so weird to him. He suddenly felt like he was back in his old life.

When he stepped outside of the building the sun was glaring and bright and he desperately wished for a pair of those oversized shades Tony was always wearing.  
____________________

Pepper;

Once Pepper’s sure that everything is perfect she takes a seat on the nice comfy couch one of the workers brought up to the rooftop.

She stretches and kicks off her high heels. 

She lays her head down and just as she feels sleep coming to her she sees a broad figure walking towards her. Gruff and strong looking, and that unmistakable hair. She smiles as Cap gets closer to her.

“Still overworked, Pepper?” He says as he kneels down in front of her.

“Mhm hmmmm,” she responds. “We just finished the final touches. I paid the workers handsomely and invited them to stay but they all packed up and left.”

“Ha, I don’t blame them. It’s going to be a scene tonight, for sure.”

“Where’s Nat and Bucky?” She looks behind him.

“Bucky is with Wanda and Vis, and Nat… well, she’s with Bruce.”

Pepper sits up, intrigued. “Uh, oh.” She leans forward. ‘Does she…?”

“You know,” Steve says as he plops down next to her. “I’m not sure. We’ve been very vigilant about not bringing him up around her.” Steve runs a hand through his hair. “Has he said anything about her?”

Pepper shakes her head. “He spends so much time bent out of shape about Tony that I’m not sure he has a life to call his own anymore.”

Steve scrunches his face up. “Well, don’t let Nat know. She’ll probably murder Tony.”

“Would that really be so bad?” Pepper laughs and Steve’s jaw drops.  
_______________________

Peter:

He heads down to the basement where Wanda and Bucky are hiding out.

“SOOO,” Peter says, awkwardly as he scratches the back of his head. “Mr. Bucky, listen, about what happened….”

“Kid,” Bucky turns to him, “It’s okay.”

“I didn’t really want to fight you, or Mr. Rogers or your friend Sam! I swear!” He bounces over to them.

Wanda smiles, shaking her head.

“It’s just, Mr. Stark asked me too, and I was so excited to help him out.”

“Kid,” Bucky takes him by the shoulders. “Tony got you involved in something that you didn’t really know anything about. Don’t worry about it. You didn’t do any real damage anyways.”

“Yeah, but, I got the shield from Mr. Rogers!”

“Okay, MAYBE you did a bit of damage to Steve’s ego, but that’s all,” Bucky crosses his arms.

“It’s basically the proudest moment of my life,” Peter kicks the floor.

“HA!” Bucky busts out laughing, and Wanda’s eyes go wide.

The elevator opens and Pepper and Steve step out.

“What’s so funny?” Steve asks, looking around the room.

“The kid,” Bucky thumbs to him.

“Hey Peter,” Steve sticks his hand out.

Peter hugs him and it takes Steve a moment before he hugs back.

“IMSORRYABOUTBEFOREMRROGERS. I SWEAR I DONT ACTUALLY HATE YOU OR ANYTHING.” Peter says so quickly that Pepper has to translate for Steve.

“I’ve got no hard feelings against you, you just got caught up in the drama,” Steve smiles at him.

“And, hey, where’s your friend? Sam?” Peter looks around.

“He’s on a work mission. He couldn’t make it,” Steve responds.

“Aw, that’s a shame. Him and Mr. Barnes are so funny together,” Peter frowns.

Wanda walks over to Pepper and whispers into her ear: “I think this is going well,” and Pepper nods.  
__________________________

Bruce:

Bruce paces back in forth in his bedroom, while Natasha sits on his bed.

“Bruce, calm down. Tony’s not going to be mad. And, IF he is, it won’t be at you. You’re one of his very best friends,” she says, reassuringly.

“The whole thing is a ticking time bomb,” he says as he unconsciously bites his lip.

“Bruce,” Natasha gets up and walks over to him. “Bruce!” She calls again when he doesn’t stop pacing. “Hey,” she gently grabs ahold of his arm and he avoids looking up at her. “Then let’s go somewhere tonight?”

“You mean, just ditch Tony?” Bruce finally looks up at her.

“You have to think about your own mental health, at some point,” She gives him her best puppy dog eyes.

“I- I don’t know….” Bruce responds and buries his face in his hands.  
_____________________

Tony: 

Tony locked himself in his bedroom. Partly to try on his new suit, and partly because of his nerves. There was a weird energy in the compound. He wasn’t sure if Pep and company were trying to hide something from him or if he was just being paranoid.

But something wasn’t sitting right with him.

He looked in wall length mirror in his bathroom.

Well, at least the suit was sitting right on him.

Nerves be damned, he’ll be the hottest thing in the room tonight.


	15. Getting Mugged on Rooftops

Stephen:

Stephen wanders around the city, feeling lost.

He’s not sure how much time passes, but he notices the sun setting behind the skyscrapers.

He remembers that he brought his phone, and pulls it out of his pocket.

As he goes to check the time he’s mugged by some young kid.

The kid knocks into Stephen hard and takes off running.

Stephen reacts slowly, and by the time he starts chasing after him the kid is already halfway up the block.

Stephen chases the kid for a couple of miles before he finally has to stop.

He feels like his legs are going to turn to rubber below him.

He curses himself for wasting time chasing the kid, and he realizes that he’s in a part of the city that he doesn’t recognize. 

When he reaches into his jacket pocket for his sling ring he remembers that he left it at home because his magic hadn’t been working.  
___________________________________

Pepper:

Guests start arriving by the dozen at the compound and Pepper’s at the entrance to greet them all.

She’s smiling and laughing and catching up with people she hasn’t seen in months.

Tony hasn’t come down yet, so she’s a little worried but she doesn’t want to push him.

Out of the corner of her eye, she notices Bruce sneak off with Natasha, and she doesn’t expect to see them back tonight.

Steve is mingling with guests on the roof, and Bucky isn’t far behind him.

Wanda and Vision are mingling with guests in the foyer.

Wanda was avoiding the confrontation she knew was going to unfold on the roof, and Vision didn’t want to leave her side. No matter how badly he wanted to be there to support Tony.

Each time a new car arrives, Pepper checks to see if it’s Strange.

She even has Peter doing reconnaissance from the second floor balcony.  
________________________

Tony:

He spends some time hyping himself up, jumping up and down in front of his bed. He does some minor stretching and flails his arms back and forth.

When the chatter of people in the compound reaches a good level, he exits his room.

He makes a beeline for the elevator and once he’s inside he smooths his suit out.

By the time the elevator opens he’s got his public Tony face on and he’s ready for the masquerade.

“Your host has arrived!” He cheers, as he sets his eyes on Steve who’s standing in the middle of a crowd.

Steve turns to him and smiles, weakly.

“You-” Tony looks all around the rooftop, trying to find someone to blame. That’s when he spots Bucky, standing off in the shadows. “Both of you-” Tony stands, frozen in front of the elevator.

It opens behind him and Pepper, Wanda and Vision come piling out. Pepper bumps into Tony. and it causes Vision and Wanda to bump into her.

“Pep… did you know?” Tony asks anger in his voice, without even looking at her.

“Yes, I did Tony,” she answers, stepping out in between him and Steve.

Steve walks right up behind Pepper. “Tony, I promise, I’m here peacefully. Wanda asked us to come, and so we came.”

Tony looked back at Wanda, who grabbed onto Vision’s arm and positioned herself a bit behind him.

“But, it’s going to be okay,” Pepper says as she gently touches Tony’s arm.

“Of course it is,” Tony turns and smiles at her. He walks over to Steve and gives him a gigantic hug.

He even manages to just barely lift Steve off of the ground.

Bucky’s eyes go wide. After the initial shock passes, he jogs over to the group.

Steve hugs him back just before Tony let’s go.

Tony notices that all eyes are on them and he throws his hands up and yells, “Where’s the alcohol? Let’s all raise a glass to good ole Captain America!” 

Pepper and Wanda run over to one of the alcohol tables and grabs enough glasses of wine for everyone.

Pepper hands one to Tony, who hands it to Bucky, leaving him with two. And he grabs an entire bottle of vodka from the ice chest just below the table.

“Uh oh,” Pepper whispers just loud enough for Wanda to pick up on it.  
_____________________

Peter:

Peter saw the reunion unfold. He had swung up from the second floor just in time to see Tony step off of the elevator.

He checked the watch on his arm and saw that almost an hour had passed since the guests started arriving. 

“Pst!” He whispers towards Pepper, who just chugged a glass of wine. Wanda was gently rubbing her back while Vision was following Tony around closely.

“PSSSSST!” Peter whispers louder. 

Wanda jumps slightly and turns to see Peter hanging off of the side of the roof. She taps Pepper on the shoulder and points behind her.

Pepper spins, hitting Wanda with a face full of hair.

“Pft!” Wanda spits, trying to separate herself from Pepper.

Pepper walks over to Peter. “What’s going on, Peter?”

“There’s still no sign of Dr. Strange, it’s weird,” Peter frowns.

“Well, did you get ahold of Wong?”

Peter’s eyes go wide. “I didn’t even think of that!” And he swings away.

“WAIT. PETER, WAIT! I meant for you to CALL him!” Pepper yells after him.

“I think it’s too late,” Wanda chuckles.

“Ohhh…” she watches Peter disappear into the distance and then turns to look back at Tony who’s already on his second bottle.

“Who let him have that?” She rubs her temples. “This is going to be a long night.”  
_________________________

Tony:

“Where’s Romanoff?” Tony asks, dancing through the crowd to Steve and Bucky.

“She’s… out,” Steve says, turning a little red in the face.

“With Bruce, huh?” Tony states.

“How did you know?” Steve raises an eyebrow.

“Because he isn’t here, and Peter told me that Bruce was going to help him ‘study’ so that he would have an excuse to be here tonight.” 

“Ah, well, yes. She wanted to speak to Bruce and we didn’t stop her. We figure they owe it to each other to figure out what they are to each other,” Steve says, as another eager woman walks up to him.

Bucky glares over Steve’s shoulder at the woman, but she doesn’t seem to mind.

Tony dances his way over to where Pepper and Wanda are standing. Vision gently pushing past people to catch up with him.

“Call off your boyfriend, I want to dance with Pep,” Tony says to Wanda as he grabs Pepper’s hand and pulls her into the dance floor.

Vision pouts beside Wanda as she strokes his arm. “He’s got to work through his feelings on his own,” she says gently.

Pepper and Tony dance together, in silence, for a long time.

“Tony, tell me what’s on your mind? You’re being so quiet.”

“It’s just weird, I haven’t seen the doctor yet,” he says, trying to play it off. “I guess he chickened out at the last minute.”

“Tony, why don’t you mingle with some old friends and let him be fashionably late. Just like you would be, if this wasn’t your party,” Pepper negotiates with him.

“Where’d my bottle go?”

Pepper sighs. ‘You drank it.”

“Well, it’s time for a third then,” and he leaves her, before he can hear her argument, and grabs another bottle.

A couple of girls swarm him, and suddenly she’s feeling like they’ve gone back in time.

She feels her friendship with Tony slipping away from her and she doesn’t want to deal with the jealousy, not tonight.

So she leaves the dance floor as quickly as she can, rushing into the elevator as another group of people exit. Wanda calls out to her but she pretends not to hear as she mashes the button for the living level.  
__________________

Peter:

Peter bangs on the door of the Sanctum for a long time before he swings up to the rooftop and shimmies into the building through a ventilation shaft.

He lands perfectly on the floor. He realizes that he’s never been on the second floor of the Sanctum before. He looks around in awe for a bit, before jogging down the stairs and into Stephen’s bedroom. He sees no sign of Stephen and spins around. He notices something out of the corner of his eye.

He gently presses the middle of his chest and his Iron-Spider suit covers his body.

He gets down on the floor and crawls outside of the bedroom.

He poses himself in an attack position when Stephen’s cloak appears in front of him.

Peter cocks his head at the cloak. 

It floats over to Stephen’s end table and taps it.

Peter stands up and opens up the drawer. He finds Stephen’s sling ring. Peter slips it onto his fingers and yells, “OPEN SESAME!”

He’s actually disappointed when a portal doesn’t open.

“Uh, how does he do this cloakie?” Peter looks at the cloak.

The cloak floats up the staircase, and Peter follows. It leads him down a long hallway to a room of three doors.

It taps the door on the left, and Peter walks over slowly. He gently pokes it open, and the door reveals a portal leading to Kamar-Taj.

Peter steps through and looks around a dark room that he doesn’t recognize.

The portal disappears behind him.

“Wong?” Peter calls.

He hears shuffling and soon enough Wong comes into view.

“Peter?” Wong asks. “How did you get here?”

“The cloak showed me the way,” he points to Stephen’s cloak.

“Where’s Strange?” Wong looks from him to the cloak.

“I’m not sure. He left this behind at the Sanctum, “Peter says as he removes the sling ring from his fingers and hands it to Wong.

“This is very unlike him,” Wong furrows his brows.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Peter asks, nervously. “He never made it to Mr. Stark’s party. Me and Ms. Potts waited for him for a while.”

“Hold on, give me a moment,” Wong disappears down the hallway.

The cloak follows after him, and Peter follows the cloak.

Wong strides across the courtyard and into the library. He pulls a book down and flips it open to a magic locating spell.

“This will help me find Strange,” he says as he lays Stephen’s sling ring down onto the table and conjures up a glyph beneath it.

Peter waits for a few minutes before finally breaking the silence. “Is it working?”

Little beads of sweat drip down Wong’s forehead: “No.”  
_______________________

Pepper:

Pepper paces back and forth in Tony’s bedroom, planning out the speech she’s going to give to him. 

She hears some shuffling coming from the lounge and then a loud crash. She runs out and sees Tony on the ground, next to some broken pieces of a lamp.

“Damnit, Tony,” she yells as she walks over to him.

Steve beats her to Tony. He picks Tony up and he and Bucky carry Tony over to the couch and set him down.

“Why aren’t you on the roof?” Pepper scolds him.

“I wanted to see if the doctor was here, yet. Looks like I might need him,” Tony tries to look at himself but lets his head fall back down to the couch.

Pepper’s face turns green as Steve checks Tony over.

“No, he’s fine. He just needs some water. He drank another bottle after you left,” Steve says, calmly.

“I’ll go get the water,” Bucky says, happy to have a reason to excuse himself from all of the drama.

Pepper looks after Bucky longingly, wishing she could just break away from it all.

Tony sits up, “Okay, I’m ready to go back up to the roof.”

“Oh no you’re not,” Pepper says, running over to him.

He tries to get up but she puts her hands on his shoulders and keeps him pinned down.

Bucky emerges from the kitchen with a tall glass of ice water and hands it off to Pepper who holds it in front of Tony’s face.

“If you drink this entire glass you can go back up to the roof,” she pleads with him.

After a moment of contemplation, he chugs the glass of water and hands it back to Pepper. He goes to get up and she throws herself onto his lap and sits down.

“Wait a minute, you said I could-” Tony whines.

“Just give yourself a minute. Your body needs to process the water.”

“Pepper Potts, if this is your way of trying to get into my pants… it’s almost working.”

Pepper’s face turns bright red and Steve clears his throat.

“On that note,” Bucky chimes as he opens the elevator and takes it back up to the roof. He waves at Steve through the glass.

“When did he get like this?” Steve asks, as though Tony can’t hear them.

“When you left,” Pepper responds.  
_____________________

Stephen:

Stephen’s sure he’s halfway back to the Sanctum when he finally finds a payphone.

He digs in his wallet for change and dials Wong’s phone number.

The call immediately goes through.

“Strange?!” Wong yells.

“Yes, it’s me,” Stephen responds sarcastically. “Who else would it be?”

“Peter showed up to Kamar-Taj, he said you never made it to Tony’s party. What’s going on?”

“...........I lost my magic, Wong.”

Several moments of silence pass.

“Where are you at?” Wong asks.

Stephen gives him the intersection next to the payphone.

“Peter and I are on our way,” Wong says before hanging up the call.

Stephen steps out of the phone booth and takes a deep breath. He looks up at the stars and wonders what Tony’s doing. He probably doesn’t even realize that I never showed. He’s probably having the time of his life.

Wong and Peter portal into the alley across from Stephen and the payphone. Peter jogs over to Stephen and Wong walks behind him.

“What happened, Strange?” 

“I was mugged,” he responds.

“No, I mean what happened to your magic?”

“I don’t know,” Stephen shrugs.  
_____________________________

Tony:

Tony’s back on the roof, again. Steve is close behind him, with Vision and Wanda flanking him.

Pepper excuses herself to the ladies room. Steve didn’t want to press her.

Tony grabs a fifth bottle of vodka from the ice chest before going back to the dance floor. He’s struggling to see clearly, and he can’t tell who’s dancing with him, but he doesn’t reject it.

“What do we do?” Wanda looks up at Steve and Vision.

“I’m not sure,” Vision’s expression sinks.

“We might have to do this the hard way,” Steve says quietly.

“No, he’ll fight you,” Bucky firmly states. “He’s too drunk now. His PTSD will kick in and it’ll turn into an all-out brawl.”

“I can’t watch him destroy himself like this,” Steve sighs.

“You didn’t,” Wanda crosses her arms and turns away from him. “You ran away, you enabled him.”

“Wanda…” Vision rubs her arm, but she pulls away from him and takes the elevator downstairs.

Vision looks to Steve and he just shrugs.

“Maybe she’ll go to Pepper and they’ll help each other,” Steve suggests to Vision.

Somebody from the crowd yells for Tony to chug. A beer keg is rolled out into the middle of the dance floor.

“Oh no, no, no, no, no, no,” Steve says to himself. “This is where somebody has to draw the line.” Steve rolls up his sleeves and pushes through the crowd to Tony, who’s already being held upside down. 

Tony’s mid chug when somebody pulls the tube from his mouth. He loses his balance and stumbles downwards into Steve.

“What’s the deal, Rogers?” He yells, angrily. 

Once Tony regains his balance he shoves Steve away from him.

Steve tries to play it off, but Tony keeps shoving him.

“Why do you care what I’m doing anyway? You, Barnes, Wanda, and Vision have been standing in the corner all night whispering about me and trading me off like some bad child who nobody wants to deal with.”

“Well-” Steve doesn’t disagree with him.

“What are you even doing here Rogers? What do you even care?” Tony shoves past him, grabbing a sixth bottle and opening it before hopping into the elevator. 

Steve chases after him, red-faced, but Bucky grabs him and yanks him to a stop.

“Steve, stop it. You’re going to make things worse. I told you to let him work it out on his own,” Bucky snaps.

Tony gets off the elevator and stumbles through the lounge, and takes tries to take the staircase down to his laboratory. He misses a step and falls the rest of the way down.

When he comes to, he’s not sure how long it’s been. He checks himself once over and realizes that his bottle is still intact. He pops it and starts drinking.

He manages to pick himself up and stumbles into one of the desks. He knocks a bunch of tools onto the floor. He takes another big chug of the vodka before he bends over to try and pick up the tools. He slips on a cord and falls onto the floor.

“FRIDAY, biometric scan.”

“Hello, Mr. Stark. The scan indicates that your bodily functions are mostly normal. You are healthy.”

“Okay, cool,” he responds as he takes a final swig of the bottle and then drops his arm, letting the bottle roll out of his hand.


	16. (Hospital) Bedside Proposals

Stephen:

By the time Wong portals him, Stephen and Peter to the party it’s in full effect.

The compound is packed.

Stephen borrows Peter’s phone and sends Tony a couple of texts. While they wait on a response they try to track down Pepper.

“They’re probably still up on the roof,” Peter says as he opens up a window and swings himself up onto the roof.

“We could have just used a portal…” Wong sighs and Stephen shakes his head.

He looks down at Peter’s phone still in his hand, but it’s not lit up.

Before Wong even has time to hit the elevator button, Peter swings back into the window. “Soooo, it turns out nobody can find Mr. Stark.”

“What?” Stephen’s heart sinks. “Do you think he left the party?”

“I asked Pepper that but she says his car is still here, so she doesn’t think so. But, she was in hysterics. Mr. Rogers looked pretty messed up, too,” Peter responds.

Stephen stands, lost in an unfamiliar building.

He closes his eyes and tries to find himself.

He reaches out for the Ancient One but he’s only met with cold darkness.  
__________________________

Pepper: 

The elevator opens up and Pepper steps out. Wanda’s linked their arms together and she’s getting drug along.

Pepper makes a beeline for Tony’s room. She spots his phone on the nightstand and swipes it.

She holds down the home button but it never comes on. Bruce must have forgotten to plug it in for Tony. 

She exits the room and walks over to Stephen, Wong, and Peter.

“What’s he doing?” Pepper points at Stephen.

“He’s trying to meditate,” Wong replies.

“In the middle of a party?” Pepper scoffs.

“He’s trying to find himself so that he can find Tony,” Wong says, a little rudely.

Stephen opens his eyes and turns to Pepper. “Is there anywhere that was off limits tonight?”

Pepper puts her free arm on her hip. “Yeah, the lab that Tony and Bruce share. Who knows what could happen if any of their technology got stolen.”

“And… has anyone thought to check the lab?” Stephen slightly snaps.

Pepper looks to Wanda, who shakes her head. “N-no,” Pepper feels ashamed to admit.

Pepper, Peter, and Stephen race off to the lab, leaving Wong and Wanda behind.

Pepper makes it down the stairs first and sees Tony’s hand sticking out from behind the desk.

She races over and throws herself down on the tile next to him.

“Tony!” She yells as she gently shakes him.

Peter turns green in the face when he runs up behind Pepper.

Stephen calmly walks over and checks his pulse. “He’s alive, of course, but he’s extremely dehydrated. We need to get him to a hospital. It’s apparent that he’s been like this for the better part of an hour,” Stephen stands up and holds his hand out to Peter.

It takes Peter a second to realize that Stephen’s asking for his sling ring.

Peter pulls it out from inside his hoodie pocket and drops it in Stephen’s hand.

Stephen slips the ring on concentrates harder than he ever has in his life.

A portal opens up to a certain hospital and Stephen turns around to pick Tony up.

“Peter, go on ahead and ask for Dr. Christine Palmer. Tell her Stephen needs help,” he says as he lifts Tony into his arms.

Peter runs through the portal, and Pepper goes after him. “Peter, don’t just-” is all Stephen hears before she’s on the other side.

He steps through and Christine’s already thrown a mask and gloves on and is racing down the hallway with a bed.

“Oh, Ste- Stephen, it’s not you this time,” She says, a little embarrassed for being so worried. 

Pepper eyes Stephen suspiciously, before asking, “Can we get him taken care of, asap? His insurance isn’t a problem, trust me.” 

Christine snaps back to reality, “Of course, yeah! I wasn’t even thinking about insurance. I’m sorry,” she helps Stephen get Tony onto the bed and they whisk him down the hallway to the operating room.

Peter starts to follow after them but Pepper grabs his elbow gently; “We can’t go into the OR, Peter. We just need to find the waiting room, and wait.”

“I’m gonna call Mr. Wong,” Peter says as he reaches into his jeans pocket for his phone. “Dr. Strange still has my phone,” he says as he swirls around to Pepper.

Pepper pats her skirt, “I left mine somewhere in the compound, I couldn’t even tell you where.”

“Well, I’ve got my wallet. Let’s see if they’re got a payphone or something,” Peter wanders off.

Pepper calls out to him to come back, but she knows underneath it all Peter’s probably one wrong word away from an emotional breakdown. He had already lost his parents, found Tony as a replacement, became happy again, and now if he were to lose Tony…. Well, she didn’t want to think about it.

Sure, she was the acting CEO of Stark Industries, but…. What’s Stark Industries without Stark? She cringed at the sound of Potts Industries.  
______________

Peter:

Peter finally finds a friendly nurse who lets him use the phone at the nurse's station.

He goes to dial and realizes that he doesn’t have Wong’s number memorized. He realizes, in fact, that the only two numbers he knows by heart are Tony’s and May’s.

He hesitates, his finger hovering above the buttons before he finally dials May’s number.

It’s late, she’s probably been calling him. He’s probably going to get the grounding of his lifetime, but he just needs to talk to somebody.

After a few rings, May answers. “Hello?” She says sleepily as if she had just woken up.

“M-May, it’s Peter,” He responds.

“Peter? What’s going on? What’s wrong? What time is it…?”

“I don’t know, I don’t have my phone.”

“You what?” She raises her voice, just a little.

“It’s a long story, but listen…. Mr. Stark’s in the hospital. He had too much to drink and he passed out. He hit his head pretty hard. I don’t know what’s going on, but Dr. Strange brought us to his old hospital and Mr. Stark’s in the operating room right now,” Peter blurts out.

“....Honey, Mr. Stark.. Drinks often. I don’t think dehydration or stomach pumping is new to him,” May tries to reassure Peter. “In fact, this kind of thing happens to high school and college students all the time. I’m so lucky that it hasn’t happened to you, yet. You didn’t drink anything tonight, did you?”

Peter groans. “Of course, not May! I spent all night trying to help Pepper babysit Mr. Stark. But I had to leave the party at one point… and when I came back everything was messed up.”

“Leave the party? Where did you go and who went with you?” She raises her voice, again.

Peter groans louder, but this time there’s a sense of playfulness to it. “I just had to go check on Dr. Strange. Turns out he had been mugged. It’s a good thing we found him when we did. He was the only one thinking clearly when we found Mr. Stark.”

“Do you want me to come up there,” May asks, after a long silence.

“No, I think I’m gonna be okay. And it’s really late. But if Wong comes by there trying to figure out what’s going on, can you let him know?”

“Of course, sweetie. I can do that,” May responds pleasantly.

“Thanks,” Peter says and hangs up the phone.

“Thanks ma’am,” Peter nods to the nurse behind the desk before trailing off back down the hallway to Pepper.  
_______________________________

Stephen:

Stephen watches from the observation room, so desperately wishing to be able to be the one saving Tony’s life. But he also knows that he can trust Christine with anything. And besides, it’s just a simple stomach pump.

Five bottles of vodka, one right after the other. What was Tony thinking?

He hears a little ping and he pulls Peter’s cell phone out of his pants. It’s Wong, wondering what’s going on.

Stephen steps outside of the observation room, and into the hallway. He dials Wong’s number, and Wong answers immediately.

“Peter?” Wong asks.

“Strange,” Stephen replies.

“What’s going on?”

“Stark’s getting his stomach pumped, it’s routine,” Stephen replies, nonchalantly.

“And Peter? And Ms. Potts?” Wong inquires.

“We split up, I’m in the room with Tony and… Christine.” Stephen hesitates over parting with that information.

“That’s the first time you’ve seen her since….”

“Since the Ancient One passed.”

“Do you feel her there?”

“No…. No, I do not,” Stephen replies, shuffling uncomfortably.

“Should I come and take Peter and Ms. Potts home?”

“No, they’ll want to see him when he wakes up.”

“Alright, I guess I’ll head home then. I’m not too invested in waiting around at this party.”

“Be my guest,” Stephen says, and hangs up the phone.  
____________________

Steve:

Steve patiently listens through what Wong tells the group. Afterward, Wong says his goodbyes and it’s Steve and Bucky left alone on the rooftop in a sea of random people.

Bucky checks his watch. “2am, huh? And it’s still like this.”

“Pepper isn’t here to shut it down,” Steve whispers.

“We could just pull the breaker box. Who wants to be at a party that’s got no music or electricity?” Bucky grins evilly.

“And make matters worse?” Steve shakes his head.

The elevator dings and Natasha and Bruce step out.

‘What’s going on? I can’t find Pepper or Tony anywhere,” Bruce asks, quickly walking over to them.

Steve turns to him. “Tony’s in the hospital. Peter, Pepper, and Strange went with him. Well… more like they escorted him because he was unconscious. Well, he’s still uncon-”

“Unconscious?” Bruce buries his face in his hands. “See, this is what I mean,” Bruce turns to Nat, alluding to some conversation they must have had earlier.

Nat gently strokes his back. ‘Calm down, Bruce.”

“Can we get this party shut down?” Steve stands at attention, to Bruce.

“Yeah, of course, in fact. Where’s Thor?” Bruce looks around.

“T-thor’s here? We haven’t seen him all night?” Steve looks back to Bucky, who shrugs in agreement.

“Hang on,” Nat says as she steps over to a microphone on the karaoke stage. “‘I’ve got this,” she winks at them before whispering to the DJ.

“Thunder” by Imagine Dragons begins playing and Natasha sings right along, smiling widely.

“What’s she- What’s she doing?” Bruce cocks his head, his jaw a little open.

“Oh no…” Bucky steps back towards the elevator.

“Buck?” Steve looks at him, confused.

Nat motions to the DJ to turn the song up, and the whole roof cheers when he does.

Bucky hits the elevator button several times, but somebody’s already in it.

“Oh man…” Bucky whines.

“Buck- what-” But Steve’s caught off by this magnificent rainstorm that appears out of nowhere.

People are instantly soaked and everyone starts screaming and shoving their phones into their clothing and purses.

Thor appears, out of a lightning bolt, into the middle of the dance floor. He looks up at Nat and flashes her the biggest smile Steve’s ever seen him make.

A queue starts up at the elevator as people take it down.

“There’s a staircase over here, folks!” Steve yells as he strolls over to it and props the door open for the people who begin to pile through.

“Operation: Thunder,” Bucky groans, his soaked hair clinging to his forehead.

“Operation: Thunder,” Bruce chuckles as Nat runs over to him. She pulls off her leather jacket and holds it up above her head.

She snuggles up against Bruce and they smile at each other.  
____________________________

Pepper:

After Tony’s surgery, Christine and Stephen took him to a huge, private suite.

The view of the city skyline from the giant windows caught Stephen’s eye immediately.

They waited for Tony to wake up for about forty minutes before Peter started falling asleep.

Stephen took Peter out into the hallway, checked to see if it was empty, and then portaled him home.

Stephen had also tried to convince Pepper to leave but she refused.

Pepper pulled a chair up next to Tony’s bed and she sat there, scrolling through her calendar app. She was emailing all of their clients tomorrow and letting them know that she would be meeting them on her own. That Tony was dealing with a family emergency and was very sorry that he couldn’t meet with them in person. 

Stephen was propped up in a chair on the other side of the room. His head was resting in his hand, and his eyes were closed. By the pace of his breathing, she assumed he had fallen asleep.

Peter mentioned to her that Stephen had been mugged earlier that night, and yet, he was still here for Tony.

Little pangs of jealousy nipped at Pepper as she typed her fingers off.

She was mid-email when Tony started stirring. She looked up from her phone, which Stephen had taken the time to grab from the compound, sometime after he and Christine set Tony up in his room, and she leaned forward towards Tony.

He groaned a few times before finally opening his eyes.

“Why’s it so bright in here?” Tony immediately whined.

“Tch,” Pepper hangs her head and laughs. “Damnit, Tony. That’s the first thing you have to say to us?”

“I figure it’s better to start with pity, move to humor, and then the yelling,” he shrugs and tries to sit up. 

Pepper hits the button on the side of his bed, lifting the top of the bed up for him.

“Where’s the kid?” Tony looks around, a little shocked and hurt that Peter isn’t there.

“Stephen sent him home, he was tired.”

Tony raises an eyebrow at Pepper. “Oh, he’s Stephen now?”

“After the night we’ve all had, yes, he’s Stephen,” Pepper retorts.

“And what about you?” Tony eyes her.

“I’ve been working on my meetings tomorrow,” she gets up and straightens her skirt out.

“Your meetings,’ Tony cocks his head.

“Yes sir, MY meetings. You’ve been told to stay in this bed until, at least, the morning, and that’s what you’re going to do,” Pepper says firmly.

Christine walks up to the door and knocks once.

Stephen jumps and shakes his head. He gets up immediately and walks outside to speak with her.

“Who’s that?” Tony asks, curiously.

“She’s the doctor who saved your life,” Pepper responds, as she folds her arms across her chest.  
____________________

Stephen:

“Thank you, Christine,” Stephen says as he hugs her.

She’s taken by surprise by the hug, but hugs back, warmly.

“It’s okay, Stephen, I’m always here to help, anytime. You know that.”

She steps back from him. “But, Tony Stark? THE Tony Stark? Ironman? What did you get yourself into this time?”

“He’s trying to recruit me into the Avengers,” Stephen says, looking away from her.

“And?” She gently shoves him.

“And I guess I’ve got to say yes. He nearly killed himself. Clearly, there’s nobody as good as me,” he smiles devilishly. 

“Oh, there goes that ego again,” she shakes her head but can’t hold her laughter in.  
__________________________

Tony:

“I’m going to leave now, Tony,” Pepper says as she leans over and kisses Tony on the forehead.

He flushes, a little.

Stephen turns around just in time to catch the end of the kiss. He awkwardly opens the door and steps inside, sitting back down in his chair.

Pepper grabs Tony’s hand and squeezes it a little. “Feel better soon, okay?” She lets go, smiles at him, at Stephen and then leaves the room.

Tony and Stephen sit in silence.

Tony turns away from him and pulls the blanket up over him.

“So, when did you take the time to finally show up?”

Stephen scoffs. “I was mugged tonight, you ass.”

“Mugged?!” Tony bursts out laughing. “The great sorcerer supreme mugged on the streets like some civilian?!” 

“Tch,” Stephen rolls his eyes. “I’m not the one who tried to fist fight Captain America in front of a crowd of people.”

“I-” Tony stops himself. “He wasn’t the guest who I was expecting.”

“But you needed closure with him,” Stephen chews out Tony. “And, in Tony Stark fashion, instead of talking it out with him, you resorted to violence.”

“Only because he wasted part of a good beer keg,” Tony mumbles.

“Like you couldn’t just afford another,” Stephen responds, angrily.

“Listen!” Tony sits up quickly, causing the blanket to fall from the floor. “Tonight wasn’t about Steve, or Barnes, Nat, Bruce, any of the old team.” Tony bites his lip and looks out of the window.

“It wasn’t about Pep or any of those strangers she invited who pretend to be my friends,” he sighed deeply.

A long time passes before Stephen works up the courage and asks, “Who was it about then?”

“You….” Tony turns to look at Stephen, “You idiot.”

Stephen’s whole face turns as red as his suit.

“It was always about you…” Tony sighs.

Stephen swallows and looks away from him.

“I was mugged…. Tonight. Because I lost control of my magic…. I couldn’t… I felt so….” Stephen tries to get out.

“How?” Tony looks at him, sadly.

“I think my old master was trying to teach me a lesson, even from her grave,” he whispers.

“And that was?” Tony cocks his head.

“That is isn’t about me,” Stephen laughs so hard that little tears drip from his eyes. “That none of this is about me, and that I needed to focus on someone who would save me, who would love me…” his voice gets soft.

“Ew, who would love you?” Tony pretends to barf.

“You, you idiot,” Stephen smirks as he gets up and takes a seat in the chair Pepper pulled up next to Tony.

“Why you-” Tony glares playfully at him.

“Ask me again,” Stephen says, his arms propped up on the edge of Tony’s hospital bed.

“I don’t know if the offer is still on the table,” Tony says, straight-faced.

“Ask me again, Tony,” Stephen gazes at him.

Tony turns red and struggles to remember how to form words. “Uh… Uh… Doctor…”

“Doctor what?” Stephen cocks his head.

“Doctor Stephen Vincent Strange, will you join the Avengers?”

“Yes,” Stephen smiles and pulls Tony in for a kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus happily ever after chapter?


End file.
